A Bump in the Road
by IReadAndWriteSometimes
Summary: Sharon and Andy have trouble resolving an argument between them. It's certainly not their first argument, but it's the first one caused by something they hoped would never become an issue in the first place.
1. Part I - Hot Heads

bwie66, you said you'd love to see my take on a Shandy argument. Well, I would, too! XD So I wrote a little story about it.

I've combined the argument idea with another thing I wish was explored on the show. I'll just stop talking now so you can see what I mean.

Have fun!

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 **Part I - Hot Heads**

They were on lunch break in a little restaurant near work. While Sharon was at least trying to enjoy her pasta salad, Andy hadn't spent any time munching on his own and was instead intently looking at her. No, he wasn't _looking_ at her. He was _glaring_ at her with a glare that, if it could, would probably burn.

He hadn't said a word on their way over. Neither had Sharon. Once seated they had placed their orders and spent the wait in silence. Sharon knew what had Andy glaring like this, but she made no attempt to address the matter. Because, truthfully, and although she was much better at hiding it, she was seething with anger as well.

This, of course, wasn't their first disagreement since they'd moved on to something more than a friendship. And while they had not had many spats so far, they had learned early on how to deal with them without them spilling over into their work sphere. Apparently coming from broken marriages had its perks after all, and certain things that they had never figured out in those, they figured out in this relationship with surprising ease. Unfortunately, the problem now was that this was the first time something at _work_ was what led to an argument. Actually, considering just how difficult they were finding it to keep their tempers under control at the moment, Sharon was ready to label this as a full blown fight. One that, ironically, managed to highlight all the things she had initially worried about when Andy asked her out on their first official date. One that, in a way, seemed to even challenge her early assurance for the late Chief Taylor that their relationship would not affect the good order and discipline of her division.

Under normal circumstances she would have probably laughed at the petulant behavior they were currently practicing on each other. The last time she was in the middle of a silent treatment was when Rusty first moved in with her and, that time, she only resorted to it to get a reaction out of him. This time, she was using it as a means to an opposite end. She knew that if she were to say anything now, Andy's temper would get the better of him, which in turn might trigger her own.

So, taking that into account, it was rather strange that they had found themselves sitting here, eating, or in Andy's case, not eating, lunch together. The shocked faces of their team members as they, together, walked out of the murder room earlier, told them they found it just as strange.

It would have probably been smarter if, at least for lunch, they had gone their separate ways. Avoiding each other at work was, quite literally, impossible, and lunch _had_ offered them the chance for some much needed alone time before they approached the rest of their work day, but it was funny how they needed some distance from one another, while, at the same time, they longed for each other's proximity. The latter need seemed to have won out, for, when Andy wordlessly got up to join her for lunch, despite knowing it might only lead to further friction, Sharon had offered no protest. Because, the fact that they still sought each other out, even though they were currently at odds with one another, and for the first time in both a personal and professional sense, was, simply put, oddly comforting.

They've had a tense couple of hours at work. Sharon had spent most of it hiding carefully behind her Captain's mask, trying to focus on the business side of things, while Andy had more than once attempted to address the more personal side. So far, the Captain was having more success, and even now, she was resolutely refusing to talk about any of it, telling herself that they were simply still too riled up for any conversation not to deteriorate into a heated argument. And while Andy clearly looked like he would very much _like_ to talk, so far, he was keeping his mouth shut, too.

They both knew they would definitely discuss it all at length once they both calmed down, like they always did, and, knowing that, in their current states, they might end up saying things they would end up regretting, they certainly had incentive enough to just sit here and eat in angry silence.

However, as they would soon find out, knowing something and acting according to that knowledge were two entirely different matters.

Barely two minutes into her meal, Sharon was finding it more and more difficult to keep quiet. What irritated her much more right now than the problem itself, was the fact that Andy wasn't eating. They've made a deal after his heart attack. Part of that deal was to take better care of his eating habits. Part of those eating habits was to eat regularly, which he now, clearly wasn't living up to.

"Eat," she finally said, really not trying to start a fight and even aiming for a soft tone of voice. But even before the word left her mouth, but far too late for her to stop it, she realized it would take on just a slight hint of annoyance.

A hint Andy picked up on. A hint that was unfortunately enough to pull the lid off of his precariously in check kept temper.

"Really?" he bit out in disbelief, but actually started eating, even though he quite violently stabbed every piece of noodle or vegetable that got in his fork's way.

Surprisingly, the reaction had Sharon's lips curve into a brief crooked smile, verging on a smirk. She could afford the little taunt, his gaze was fixed on his attempts of, quite literally, killing his lunch.

Much less annoyed than a moment ago, she calmly told him, "Yes, really."

At that, he looked up, just in time to see the remnants of her fading smile, which, of course, did not help his temper.

"You find this amusing?" he asked sharply, practically scowling at her.

"No," she told him seriously around a bite of her lunch. "I'm just glad you're finally eating," she informed him over a small smile, hoping it would completely erase her earlier annoyance and explain her earlier smile, too.

He narrowed his eyes at her and although they both knew her words were honest, he still scoffed and angrily stabbed his fork into another noodle. "I can't believe you're still worried about my stupid diet after _that_!" he told her, waving his free hand at the window their table was set at.

No, lunch together today really wasn't their brightest idea.

"Yes, I am," she told him flatly, not at all appreciating his angry tone of voice. "And _that_ ," she waved a hand at the window just as he had, "will wait until we get home," she added, pinning him with a look that was probably much more irritated that she would have liked it to be.

He sighed and dropped his fork onto his plate. "Can we just for once _not_ wait?" he asked her, throwing his arms out. "This _is_ work related," he told her pointedly, looking rather smug as he shared the fact.

"Oh, is that so?" she asked, her voice becoming just a tad more louder with the challenge in it, but still quiet enough to not draw the attention of any of the restaurant's other guests. When he nodded, quite confidently at that, she was quick to wipe his smug look off his face. "Is that why you brought it up during our break from said work?" she asked, her own anger slowly but steadily bubbling to the surface.

It wasn't the first time work and home had mixed and it wasn't like she ever expected the two _not_ to overlap at all, but _this_ particular overlap only added to her current irritation with him. At the back of her mind, she knew she would approach it all much more rationally once she simmered down, but it was hard to wait until then, when Andy suddenly seemed so intent on having them approach it _ir_ rationally right now. And what she found even more irritating was that, at the back of his own mind, he also knew her approach was better.

"Oh, come on, Sharon!" Andy exclaimed, grabbing his fork again to resume working off his frustrations on his lunch. "You really want us to sit on this for the rest of the day?" he asked, giving her an incredulous look.

Yes, it was definitely hard, _too hard_ , to wait until she simmered down.

His question was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back and Sharon's words burst out of her on their own volition. "As a matter of fact, Andy, I do." She spoke in a low, deliberate voice, a sure sign for anyone who knew her that she was pissed off, and a sure sign for Andy that he had better not interrupt her either. "Because I am too angry and disappointed right now to deal with this in a civilized manner!" she went on. "But fine," she suddenly dropped her own fork and shifted in her seat to pin Andy with a hard look, "you want to talk about it now? Fine, let's talk, Andy."

The even lower, more threatening tone of voice she said those final words in, made Andy swallow and give up on his own lunch. He had almost forgotten she could get downright scary when she wanted to, especially when she pinned you with that narrow-eyed look she was pinning him with at the moment. When she paused expectantly, not knowing what to say, he merely nodded. Thankfully, it was enough for Sharon to continue.

"What was the one thing I insisted on, when this," she waved a hand between them, "started?"

She looked like she would just shoot more questions at him, but when she snapped her mouth shut and instead gave him an expectant look, Andy realized he was supposed to actually answer. Knowing it was best that he did, especially since he hasn't seen Sharon in this kind of mood in forever probably, he replied. "That we not let our feelings for each other get in the way of our jobs."

He said the words begrudgingly even though they were the complete truth. That was the only thing that had never been open for discussion and on which she insisted before she allowed herself, and them for that matter, to give this dating thing (although simple dating had stopped being an accurate label for their relationship a long while ago) a chance at all. And he didn't disagree with it.

She nodded, her agitation not in the least abating. "And what happened today?" The question left her in a clipped tone of voice, giving away the effort she was putting into remaining at least outwardly calm.

"I let my emotions get in the way of doing our jobs," he muttered, picking up his fork again.

"Exactly," she bit out, picking her own fork up, looking as if she had made her point and was ready to drop the matter for the time being.

Only, the almost condescending way she said that in, had Andy's temper flare up again, even though she had made a damn good point. At the back of his head he probably knew she wasn't being condescending at all, but was merely refraining from making a scene at the restaurant, but just then, there was no room in his mind to actually admire the fact that she could still project such calmness and, instead practically growled his next words at her.

"Look at you!" he waved a hand at her. "Look at that," he now pointed his hand at her cheekbone. "Look at that," he repeated, "and tell me it was uncalled for!"

Instinctively she pulled a hand up to her cheek, where she was currently sporting a rather large bruise her make-up was doing as good a job as it could of hiding, and when she spoke, it was in softer tones. "Protecting me _is_ part of your job, Andy," she pulled her hand down to the top of the table, "but that violent a reaction was indeed uncalled for," she told him gently, knowing he wouldn't want to hear it, wouldn't want to admit she was right until he calmed down.

"The hell it was," Andy bit out, now angrily chewing on another piece of his lunch. "That son of a bitch hurt you!" he told her heatedly over a mouthful.

"He's not the first _son of a bitch_ , as you put it, that did, nor will he be the last," she told him heatedly now as well, the fact that she resorted to his expletive language another sign of just how agitated she still was. "Which you should very well know by now," she added angrily, knowing she wouldn't have said that either had the events not been so fresh on her mind.

"Well, I can still try to-" he started, but Sharon was quick to cut him off.

"What? Beat up more suspects?" she asked sarcastically and she ignored his frown as she went on. "Two of your colleagues had to practically restrain you!" She took a quick breath before immediately adding her final point. "Andy, your actions have led to an FID investigation in my division!" she said, the touch of disbelief in her voice showing she still could not believe that actually had to happen, and out of all possible reasons, because of _him_.

"I don't give a damn about FID and their stupid investigation!" Andy spat out. "It's not like _I_ called them!" he added accusingly. "What? I'll get a slap on the wrist and that's it!" He gave her an incredulous look. "Who the hell cares, Sharon?" he asked, carefully enunciating the first four words.

Yes, they definitely should have had this conversation with cooler heads on their shoulders.

Abruptly, Sharon stood up and in painfully forced calmness started collecting her things. " _I_ care, Andy," she told him flatly. And even though she could tell he realized his heated comments and question were anything but smart and that he was regretting them already, she did not let him apologize like she knew he wanted to. "Let's pay for this and get back to work," she told him in an eerily quite voice. "I've had enough." Of both this argument as well as lunch.

Shocked, because he had never gotten this kind of reaction out of her, Andy just stared at her as she collected her things. Never had either one of them let an argument end without some kind of resolution, but right now he was completely stumped for words. He realized she was right. This should have waited until they got home.

Only when she was done and, when, over folded arms, she told him, "I'll be waiting by the door." did he snap out of his daze and scramble to his feet to do as she asked.

He covered the bill and found her waiting, as promised, by the door, when he came back.

She eyed the take out bag in his hand, and at her raised eyebrow, he asked, "What?" He shrugged when her eyebrow only went up higher. "If I skip lunch, you'll probably kill me sooner than any heart attack would."

When she looked at him and pursed her lips, before ever so slightly shaking her head in amusement, he took it as a good sign. She was mad alright, hell, he still was, too, but they'd get over it.

They walked out of the restaurant and toward LAPD headquarters, spending the entire walk in silence again, trying to collect themselves again after their previous outbursts.

It was Andy who finally broke it when they entered the elevator, that was thankfully empty since most people were still on their respective lunch breaks. He had calmed down somewhat.

"Sharon," he started, "I'm really s-"

"Don't," she warned, interrupting him without even looking at him.

He frowned at the surprisingly harsh tone of her voice. "I'm only trying to apologize!" he said, rolling his eyes, all of a sudden irritated again.

"Not now," she told him, more gently this time, even though her gaze was still fixed on the elevator doors.

His frown only deepened and he sighed. "Sharon, I don't want to leave things at this," he told her, waving a hand between them, exasperated now.

She turned to look at him. "Neither do I," she assured him, reaching out for his hand to give it a quick assuring squeeze, too. "I just don't want to either accept or offer any apologies while we're both still upset," she told him. "And certainly not in an elevator of all places," she added, almost as an afterthought.

"I'm not upset!" he said, but the moment he registered his high pitched tone of voice, he knew he was unwillingly lying and he groaned.

His reaction actually got a chuckle out of her and he shot her a bland look. "Okay, I'm pissed off," he told her flippantly.

It didn't get much of a reaction out of her this time, she only took a quick, calming breath. "All the more reason," she sounded serious, "that we put this aside until we get home." She offered a teasing smile before adding, "We can have a screaming match if you want then. Rusty's going to Gus's after work."

Andy sighed, then scoffed. "I don't want to scream," he told her, finding his usual tone of voice for the first time since the incident. "Maybe punch a few more dirtbags though," he admitted on a guilty shrug.

"So, can we just get through the rest of our day here and continue this when we get home?" she asked, purposefully ignoring his last sentence since that was part of the 'this' she wanted to discuss in the first place.

He gave her a long, hard look before finally relenting and muttering, "Fine."

"Thank you," she said, the breath she released making her now visibly more relaxed. She squeezed his hand again before letting go of it and turning around to face the doors again just as they opened to reveal their division's floor.

"Now, Lieutenant," she started as they walked out, "would you, please, cooperate with FID?" She was back to business again.

Andy rolled his eyes, but refrained from groaning again. While him and Sharon had already given their statements, which was why they were allowed to take a lunch break in the first place, he had forgotten her ex-colleagues would still be roaming the murder room once their break was over.

"Fine, Captain," he bit out bitterly.

 **TBC**

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I'll fill in the gaps later (I hope XD), don't worry. Does it sound believable so far though?  
Please, share your opinions in the reviews. I'd love to hear what you thought of this, the good and the bad! :D


	2. Part II - The Incident

Holy crap! Your reviews! You people are awesome! I'm so glad you liked it, although, I gotta say, I'm getting a bit worried about the rest of my story not living up to your enthusiasm and expectations now. O.o

Aaaanyway, here's the next chapter. I think you can guess the big part in _italics_ is a flashback, of which there will actually be more in the following chapters.

Enjoy!

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 **Part II - The Incident**

FID was finally gone. While they hadn't even started writing their official report yet, at least they had already let them in on their verdict as well as their sentence for Andy. As annoying as the entire situation was, it was a clear-cut case and there was really no need to dig too deep in order to close it.

So now, ten more minutes before the work day would finally come to an end, Sharon was sitting in her office, finishing up on the last of her paperwork. A quick glance at her glass walls let her know the rest of her division was doing the same, including Andy. While she had, and Andy too, considerably calmed down, she was looking forward to her car ride home. She and Andy had taken separate cars into work that morning, which meant her lonesome car drive would offer her time for some much needed quiet privacy. It wasn't like any of her co-workers had been staring at her or Andy or asking them any unnecessary questions (Andy wasn't hovering either), but the tension in the murder room today had been almost palpable. So, as awful as it may sound, she was also looking forward to escaping that.

On reflection, something like this was bound to happen eventually. Actually, it was rather surprising that it took them this long to encounter this particular bump in the road.

Honestly, it was all very unfortunate. In some strange way she was even glad the day had revealed that there were certain things she and Andy were not as prepared for as they may have thought they were, because that meant they could now try to prepare for it a little better, but she still wished for a bit of luck and fractionally faster reaction times. With those, this day could have gone a lot more normally.

 _It was one of those cases where everything seemed to point at one person while at the same time it also seemed to point away from that person. A motive for killing, followed by a motive not to kill. A past indicating at violent behavior, followed by a present marked by nothing but upstanding behavior. A seemingly honest, loving statement about their victim, followed by a tape showing the man spewing hate about said victim. All of this while not having a single piece of concrete evidence to either nail the guy or prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wasn't the man they were looking for._

 _But preying on his past violent outbursts, Sharon and her division decided to orchestrate a bit of a play for their suspect, hoping to either trick him into a confession or to prove that he really was innocent. What better way to rile up their suspect than by outlining their case with a few carefully placed digs here and there and a few equally carefully placed misrepresentations of facts?_

 _"Which is why," Sharon was in the middle of saying, as she gave their suspect a sympathetic look, "we believe your wife has taken her own life."_

 _"And that in turn," Mike added, from where he was leaning against Amy's desk, who was seated at it, but turned toward their suspect and Captain in front of the murder board, "unfortunately means her life insurance premium is rendered void."_

 _Mike purposefully ignored Andy who was leaned against the wall behind Provenza's desk, his partner sitting in his chair, and who was sporting an expectant smirk, waiting to see if their suspect would take the bait before Mike was even done with his sentence._

 _"That's awful," their suspect said, hanging his head and shaking it. It drew a surprised raise of an eyebrow from Andy, for that was not the reaction he or any of his other team members were expecting, but suddenly the man lifted his head and frowned at Mike. "What do you mean 'rendered void'?" he asked sharply. "Aren't I supposed to get that money in case of her death?"_

 _That put Andy's smirk back in place while Mike, in typical know-it-all fashion, explained, "Well, yes, if this had been a murder, but the insurance company reserves the right to not pay up if the insured client commits suicide, which," he waved a hand at their murder board, which outlined parts of their ongoing investigation, "is the case here. It's all in the contract, Sir."_

 _The man followed Mike's wave of his hand, then looked between the board and the rest of the division. "No," he let out, agitated all of a sudden. "No!" he repeated, the word escaping him on a loud bark of disbelief. "This isn't suicide," he shouted, his agitation only growing as he started waving his hands through the air. Julio, standing to their suspect's left in front of Sharon, stiffened fractionally, ready to jump in should it be necessary. Andy braced himself, too, as he pushed off the wall to stand up straight._

 _Coolly, Sharon asked, "You seem rather convinced of that?" She had taken half a step back and folded her arms, a precaution, just in case._

 _The man exploded in anger. "Of course I'm convinced of that!" he yelled at her, before turning around to look at the rest of the detectives around him. "What a bunch of morons you are!" he told them. "You goddamn idiots!" He waved a hand at the board. "Don't you see, huh?" He waved his hand again. "_ I _killed her,_ I _snapped her neck! It's not suicide, you idiots!"_

 _"You," the pronoun left Sharon in a deceptively surprised voice, "killed your wife, Sir?" she asked._

 _His head whipped around to look at her. "Of course, I did!" he said clearly, in the heat of the moment having no idea what he was in the process of admitting to. "That money was the only good thing about her, so, yes, I killed the bitch!"_

 _"Julio," Sharon, sporting a rather disgusted expression now, addressed her detective._

 _He merely nodded, and took a step closer to their suspect, already reaching for his cuffs. "You are under arrest-" Sharon started, Julio already having reached the man's hands to put a cuff around one of his wrists, when suddenly the man lurched forward._

 _"What the hell?" the man cut her off, managing to, probably due to the rather impressive height difference between them, fight off Julio's hold for a moment. Before Andy and Mike could reach them and help, the man's attention fell back on Sharon, and suddenly, saying, "You can't arrest me!" he made a move to push her away, her mere presence now seemingly fueling his rage, but with the way Julio was still struggling to get him under control, on their way to Sharon's shoulders, and before she could react, one of his hands painfully collided with the left side of her face instead._

 _A second later, Julio managed to cuff the man while the unexpected collision forced Sharon to take a step back, bracing herself against the murder board so as to not topple over with the force of it, Amy already on her feet with a worried, "Captain!" on her lips._

 _When Andy reached Julio, instead of helping him, not that he needed much help anymore, before anyone could realize what was happening, his fist connected with their murderer's temple, splitting open the side of his eyebrow._

 _"Get your filthy hands off of her!" he barked. Julio had no time to pull their suspect to the side, when Andy's fist connected with the man's face a second time, this time giving him a bloody nose._

 _He was ready to strike a third time, when Mike, Provenza and Nolan reached him, Mike and Nolan grabbing his arms to get him off the man, and Provenza shouting, "Flynn!"_

 _Julio finally got their suspect away from Andy, making quick work of ushering him out of the murder room and, more importantly out of sight, despite his angry yells and kicks on the way._

 _Andy violently fought the hands on his arms. "Get off me!" he spat out, his face contorting with the rage he felt as his gaze followed Julio's movements. "Get off of me!" he repeated with equal heat, but their grip on him would not let up._

 _"Flynn, pull yourself together!" Provenza hissed at him, poking a finger into his partner's chest and getting into his face, trying to get his attention._

 _He did get it, only, Andy then directed his rage at him. "Are you kidding me?!" he shouted._

 _"Andy!" Sharon said sharply, waving off Amy, who was worriedly trying to get a proper look at her face. Black spots had briefly entered Sharon's vision and she, unfortunately, did not manage to intervene sooner._

 _But Andy did not even register the word. "He hit her," he bit out, his focus still on Provenza._

 _Sarcastically, Provenza replied, "Yeah, we know, we'll add it to his list of crimes." Past his sarcasm however, his eyes did flicker over to Sharon for a quick concerned once over, but apart from her slightly askew glasses and the fact that she'd soon have quite the bruise on her face, she seemed fine._

 _Andy again tried to fend off Nolan's and Mike's hold on him, albeit less violently this time, and both of them shot Sharon a quick look, seeking permission to let go of him._

 _"Andy," she tried again as she adjusted her glasses, more gently this time, but again he ignored her, so she shook her head at them._

 _He stayed quiet, still glaring angrily at his partner._

 _"Lieutenant Flynn," Sharon suddenly said, much more sharply than she had called out his name a few moments ago._

 _Finally, it got his attention and Andy's head snapped back to look at her. It got the attention of the rest of their team, too and the murder room suddenly went eerily quiet, the shock over the voice Sharon had employed, probably for the first time in years, clearly written all over their faces._

 _"What?" Andy bit out, irritated._

 _Sharon pointed at his desk. "Sit down, Lieutenant," she ordered in a deceptively calm voice._

 _"What?" Andy let out on a note of utter disbelief, now having completely given up on his fight with Mike and Nolan._

 _Sharon gave the two a quick nod, and they finally let go of him. "You heard me," she told Andy. "Get back to your desk, you are done with this case!" she said, her hand still pointing at his desk._

 _"You have got to be kidding me?" Andy said, turning fully around, now that he could, to give her a wide eyed look. "I was only tr-"_

 _Sharon raised a hand at him, effectively shutting him up. "I most certainly am_ not _kidding, Lieutenant," she told him in a clipped manner as she folded her arms across her chest._

 _Andy looked around at his team members, who all, at the same time seemed to be uncomfortable with the exchange and rather impressed by Sharon's handling of it. They also kept their mouths wisely shut. His gaze landed on Provenza lastly, but he only shook his head at him, effectively agreeing with their Captain's order. So, in response, Andy threw his arms out, gave the heavens a quick, incredulous look and stomped over to his desk._

 _"Mike," Sharon took a breath as she watched Andy walk away, before tearing her eyes away from him to look at the Lieutenant she addressed, "this needs to be reported," she told him._

 _Mike seemed slightly taken aback by the words and he looked between her and Provenza with wide eyes, before settling them on her again. "Uh, FID, you mean?" he asked, tentatively._

 _"FID?" Andy let out from over his desk chair, incredulous, interrupting whatever answer she may have had._

 _"Yes, FID," Sharon replied flippantly, before turning to Mike again. "I'd rather report this on my own than deal with it after our suspect's possible complaint," she told him quickly, before Andy could interject again._

 _"Oh," Mike said as realization dawned on him, "yes, of course, Captain," he told her, now busy quickly rounding the desks to reach his phone._

 _"I can't believe you're setting FID loose on me," Andy bit out angrily._

 _"Amy," Sharon pointedly ignored Andy for a moment and addressed the only other female detective in the room, "could you please get me some ice for this?" she asked, waving a hand at her face._

 _When Amy immediately nodded and headed toward the break room to search the freezer there, Sharon turned on her heel to finally glare at Andy. He was fuming, but gave her a defiantly expectant look. While she found what he was implying unbelievable on both a professional and personal level, she forced herself not to bite out an equally angry retort. "And do you have a reason for not reporting this?" she asked dangerously calmly instead, waving a hand around the murder room._

 _Andy gave her an incredulous look, not heeding her hidden warning at all as he offered an answer, "Well, how about the fact that I'm y-"_

 _"Shut up, Flynn!" Provenza suddenly snapped at him. When Andy made an attempt to finish his sentence anyway, he cut him off again. "Shut the hell up, you idiot!" he shouted, before walking back to his desk and flopping into his chair. This time, Andy actually did shut up, taken aback by his partner's sudden outburst. Everybody else, except maybe Sharon, seemed rather surprised, too._

 _Sharon took another, more calming breath. Knowing the division's focus was on her and Andy, but not trusting herself to calmly address the matter further, she politely excused herself before making her way into her office. Thankfully, none of them tried to stop her. But when she reached Andy's desk, he quietly said, "Sharon." making her stop after all, but only to pin him with a livid glare._

 _"I suggest you listen to your partner, Lieutenant," she told him, and, not waiting to see the angry and hurt look that crossed Andy's features, made her way to her office door. Before stepping into her office though, she gave Mike one last look. "Tell me when they're here," she instructed._

 _"Yes, Captain," he immediately replied, nodding._

 _With that, Sharon finally entered her office and closed the door behind her._

 _She had barely spent five minutes in it, now with a small ice pack over the bruised side of her face, when, without knocking, (a clear sign that emotions were still running high, for he usually always knocked) Andy entered it. With the way his entrance instantly flared up her temper, she was incredibly grateful for closing the blinds earlier in the day._

 _She merely gave him an expectant look, when after closing the door behind him, he stopped in front of her desk chairs._

 _"Look, can we just talk before FID gets here?" he asked, the question sounding almost like a peace offering and there was no denying it that he was putting real effort into sounding calm._

 _"No," she retorted instantly._

 _The answer took Andy by surprise. "Why?" he asked in a high defensive tone of voice, bristling at her refusal, all signs of his previous calmness now instantly vanishing._

 _She knew her carefully modulated tone of voice would only rile him up further, but she felt it was either resort to that or start yelling. _"You punched a suspect, twice. You disobeyed my direct order for a good minute before finally giving in to it_ _. And you are obviously," she waved a hand at him, "yet to calm down." She paused and asked, "Need I go on?"_ _

_"Sharon," he started loudly, but she cut him off before he even managed to get her name past his lips properly._

 _"_ Captain _," she warned carefully._

 _The whole Sharon-business was the reason why they were in this situation in the first place. Despite being painfully aware that his reaction was the result of something very much personal, her own reaction most likely was as well (and they would certainly talk about that, too), right now she needed to focus on the professional aspect of it. Which he would have realized himself, were he not so upset at the moment._

 _ _The rank put a frown on his face. Almost mockingly he growled, "Captain." but made no attempt to actually say what he wanted to before she had cut him off.__

 _ _So she decided to use the chance to speak up herself again_ _.__ _"Until FID deals with this, I am not discussing anything else with you, Lieutenant," she told him. "You are more than welcome to wait for them back at your desk," she added over a heated glared aimed at him while dismissively waving a hand in the direction of his desk._

 _His frown turned into a scowl and he practically yelled, "Fine!" before heading out of her office and slamming the door shut behind him._

 _However, barely a second later, the door, equally violently swung open again, and, stepping inside again, he angrily asked,_ _"Can I at least ask if you're in pain?"_

 _Too annoyed by the fact that once again he had disobeyed an order, she couldn't even appreciate the fact that even in his obvious anger he still seemed concerned about her, but still, although equally angrily, she answered, "Not anymore!"_

 _And just like that, with the most fractional of nods, he turned around again and left her office, once more loudly shutting the door behind him, a barked "Good!" on his lips._

 _Immediately after, despite the now firmly closed door, she heard his loud and angry "What?" and she knew his team members must have given him a curious look, which was clearly enough to set him off further._

 _In her agitation, for a split second she considered ordering him back into her office, but then the rational part of her mind kicked in and she thought better of it. It wasn't the first time her team dealt with an angry Andy Flynn and she doubted her intervention would actually help the situation._

 _She didn't like it, but she decided to let it go for now. She only got up to open her blinds, hoping that that would at least be enough to lift some of the obvious heat on Andy, since she knew the team's inquisition would not help his temper any. She noticed that Buzz had come out of the electronics room where he had been following the feed the cameras he set up in the murder room provided him with. She wanted to groan at the realization that the entire incident had been recorded, too, but she refrained and focused on the rest of her division instead. The moment the blinds had snapped opened, everybody had been startled into going back to work and while she didn't like that either, she still took it as a small reprieve for the time being._

 _It wasn't hard to tell just how awkward she and Andy were making things for the rest of the team at the moment, but until she actually resolved the situation with him, for now there was nothing she could do to change or remedy that._

 _She sighed when she noticed the scowl Provenza was aiming at Andy, despite her open blinds._

 _Shaking her head, she returned to her desk. Apparently she would not only have to keep Andy from butting heads with her and FID. She would have to deal with him and his partner, too._

A knock on her door pulled her out of her musings. She looked down at a piece of paper in front of her, and, realizing the sheet was still not filled in, briefly closed her eyes in annoyance. A quick glance at her watch let her know she had wasted not ten, but fifteen minutes replaying the day in her mind.

"Come in," she said, when another knock, more urgent this time, disturbed her silence.

Andy popped his head inside. "Ready to head home?" he asked quietly, almost tentatively.

She looked up and realized the rest of her division had already left. It's been a while since they had last left without saying goodbye, she realized.

Following her gaze that was set on her glass walls, probably guessing where her thoughts had gone, he said, "They only just left. Threw you a wave on their way out, too." He shrugged before adding, "But you seemed kind of out of it."

She looked at him and offered a guilty smile. "I was," she admitted, getting to her feet, deciding the rest of her paperwork could wait until tomorrow.

"You okay?" Andy asked, watching her as she slipped her jacket on and grabbed her purse.

"I am," she told him, rounding her desk. He pulled the door completely open for her. "Let's just go home," she said, running a hand quickly down his arm as she walked past him and out of her office.

"Alright," Andy said and went after her.

 **TBC**

* * *

So *grimaces painfully* the incident? What do you say?


	3. Part III - A Moment to Collect Their Tho

Consider this part an intermission of sorts before, in the next chapter, we get down to taking apart the real issues behind their argument at work.

* * *

 **Part III - A Moment to Collect Their Thoughts**

They reached their respective cars in silence, only lifting it to offer each other a "Drive safely." and "See you at home." before pointing them in the direction of Sharon's (and well, Andy's now, too) condo.

Andy took the quiet of his car ride to think about his day. He had made no more attempts to clear the air with Sharon after lunch, because truthfully, he understood why she needed to keep things purely professional for the time being, not that it helped his temper any, but since FID, his team and paperwork kept him busy for the rest of the day anyway, it wasn't really that difficult to do so.

And this now was actually his first real peaceful moment to collect his thoughts.

He doubted he had ever had such a violent reaction toward a suspect. While he could lose his temper occasionally and maybe step close to the edge of what he, as a police officer, was allowed to do to a suspect, his outburst today used to be Julio's area of expertise, not his. And honestly, he could not even recall the last time he had gone out of control like this. He could get into a suspect's face, sure, use a bit of force to restrain him, too, but he really rarely, if ever, resorted to actually punching them into submission.

Unconsciously he tightened his right hand around the steering wheel. It was dark by now, but the bit of light emanating from the dashboard was enough to show him the bruising that had finally slightly darkened his knuckles there. He had only noticed it a couple of hours ago since it didn't really hurt. After all, he had only hit the guy twice.

Asking himself why he hit the guy at all was pointless. Sharon was why. He wouldn't have acted the way he had, had it been Amy who the suspect hit, that was for sure.

It was a lousy excuse, he knew, because Sharon was also why he _shouldn't_ have acted the way he had. Why he wished he hadn't.

But what was done was done. As much as he'd like to, he couldn't change a thing now. All he could do, was wait to get home and finally talk to Sharon, to try to put all of this behind them. He was actually looking forward to it. He hated arguing with her, and because of work of all things. He wanted things to return to normal as soon as possible.

Only, he still felt rather angry and was finding it hard to believe that they could put this behind them as easily as he hoped they could. Actually, no. He wasn't so much angry with her as much as he felt betrayed by her.

She had called FID on him. Okay, technically, Mike had, but on _her_ order. He knew that FID would have gotten involved sooner or later, since their suspect had needed medical attention and it had been a law enforcement related injury, making it their jurisdiction anyway, but did she really have to insist on getting them to their murder room _herself_? He had brought FID on himself, he could admit to that, and there was no way to really avoid them, but couldn't she have just waited until the doctors checked their suspect out, or if and when he filed a complaint? It would all have reached FID eventually anyway.

Maybe it was past experience with her, long before they ever became friends, let alone started dating, that was talking here, but it stung. It stung that she would be so eager to get FID on his case, when she could have just waited it all out until it ran its course. At least that would have given him a few more chances to try to talk to her before FID graced them with their annoying presence.

He suddenly found himself scoffing in his empty car as a new thought crossed his mind. He glanced quickly at his rear view mirror to catch a glimpse of the car that was following him, its owner the main occupant of his thoughts at the moment. If he were to tell her any of this, Sharon would merely claim she was doing the right thing, whether he understood why or not. Maybe the fact that he did not understand her motives was one of the reasons why he had been so angry with her today.

He sighed and shook his head at himself. Maybe Provenza was right, he decided.

 _They were in the break room, getting themselves a cup of much needed coffee. Andy had calmed down somewhat. Everybody had finally given their statements. FID was still going over the case, having to unfortunately make sure none of the rest of it was mishandled as spectacularly as he had mishandled their suspect, but at least, not counting the occasional question regarding it thrown their way, they were finally more or less left to their own devices._

 _It was the first time since the incident that Andy had found himself alone with his partner. Provenza had been very unimpressed with him today, and that was putting it mildly, and while Andy was aware of it, he couldn't help but try to vent at least a little bit. Sharon was still adamant about not discussing any of it until FID was done with their investigation but he was desperate to get at least some of it off his chest. As irritated as his partner seemed to be with him, he still thought he'd be willing to offer at least some support, because he really could use some. He was feeling awfully alone in all of this._

 _"She won't talk to me you know," he said, turning around to lean against the counter, his cup of coffee in hand, watching as his partner poured himself a cup now, too._

 _"She doesn't_ have _to talk to you," Provenza replied, wiping away the bit of coffee he managed to spill._

 _"Why not?" Andy asked, surprised. "I know I messed up," he added, regretfully._

 _Provenza leaned against the counter now as well and sighed. "You sure did," he told him._

 _"Wow, thanks," Andy muttered sarcastically._

 _Provenza rolled his eyes, taking a sip of his coffee. "The Captain, and FID for that matter, are only doing their jobs. You should try to as well," he said._

 _Andy frowned, stopping mid-coffee-sip to look at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"_

 _"It means you should calm down and just let them get it all over with. Mind your own work until then." Provenza said in answer, shrugging. "You and your_ girlfriend _," the word left him on a mocking note, "can talk all you want afterwards." He waved a hand through the air at that final word._

 _Andy rolled his own eyes now. "I'm not keeping them from_ _getting it over with," Andy said defensively._

 _"Yeah, sure you're not," Provenza mumbled._

 _Andy wasn't even trying to hide his displeasure with FID's presence since returning from lunch, even if he knew it was nothing but protocol and he was the only one to blame for them having to be there in the first place. He was ultimately fully co-operating with FID, but he only did so with a fair amount of grumbling along the way. And that grumbling was keeping them in their division longer than necessary, whether Andy was willing to admit it or not._

 _"Well, sorry," Andy mumbled back, maybe realizing his temper was extending their stay somewhat after all. "I'm angry," he added as if that was justification enough for it._

 _Provenza scoffed, giving him a bland look. "You have no reason to be angry," he told him sharply. "The Captain?" he paused, theatrically considering the matter. "Maybe. But you?" he paused again. "Definitely not," he decided, nodding his head._

 _Andy scowled at him. "You're kidding, right?" he asked, raising his voice. "She's the one who benched me and is refusing to talk about it!" With the way his voice went up, his temper seemed to flare up as well._

 _"If it makes you feel any better," Provenza started on a note of false sympathy after another sip of his coffee, "I'd be doing the same if I was her."_

 _"Why?" Andy asked on a frown, offended all of a sudden, but quickly added, suddenly raising his palms up in surrender, "Okay, I get it why I'm off the case, but why can't I just go and apologize to her? How's this," he waved a hand around the room, "helping things?"_

 _Provenza chuckled bitterly. "Because you're not supposed to apologize, Flynn," he told him, somewhat heatedly. "Maybe to the suspect," he corrected begrudgingly, clearly believing that the man deserved many things, but an apology was not one of them. Andy scoffed at the suggestion. "_ You _'re supposed to do_ your _job, let_ them _do_ their _job," he waved a hand somewhere in the direction of the murder room, "and face the consequences."_

 _Andy's frown only deepened. "Since when are you on FID's side?" he asked accusingly._

 _Provenza sighed, and pushed off the counter to pin his partner with an irritated look. "I'm not on their side. I'm on your side. We're all on your side, Flynn, the Captain included. If you would just get over yourself so you could see that," he paused and his look gave way to hope, "now, that'd be great."_

 _"Well, I can't," Andy resolutely refused. "She's the one who called them in the first place!" he added._

 _"To help you, you idiot!" Provenza instantly replied, throwing his arms out a bit, the coffee in his cup, precariously sloshing around just barely not spilling over the edge._

 _"Wow, great help she was," Andy muttered, deciding he had had enough of this conversation and making his way out of the break room._

 _Provenza went quickly after him, suddenly looking rather agitated. "Don't you dare accuse her of anything else," he yelled after him, just as they reached the murder room, the words getting the attention of the rest of their division, too. Thankfully, the FID detectives were set up in Sharon's conference room and seemed to not notice the raised voice._

 _Andy, now equally riled up, stopped and whirled around to look at him. "Of course I won't!" he yelled back, defensively. "I'm not an idiot!"_

 _Provenza stopped, too. "Good," he retorted. "Because," he waved a hand at the rest of the murder room, "we're tired of you mak-"_

 _"Lieutenants," Sharon's quiet but firm voice cut him off._

 _Both of them snapped their heads around to look at her, neither having noticed she had come out of her office._

 _Having gotten their attention, she said, "You had better not be discussing what I think you are." She pinned them with an expectant look, almost daring them to admit that indeed they were._

 _Andy sighed and looked heavenward, knowing that even if she hadn't heard their entire conversation she knew they were talking about her._

 _"We're done anyway," he muttered, shooting his partner a final angry glare, before finding his desk._

 _Provenza looked ready for combat and glared at his partner for another moment, but ended up rolling his eyes and walking over to his own desk. "Yes, Captain," he mumbled, "we're done."_

Maybe Provenza had a point. Maybe she _was_ just helping.

He glanced at his rear view mirror again. She was still trailing behind him. This time he didn't scoff, but instead took a deep calming breath.

Yes, she was definitely trying to help, he decided. Maybe by the rest of the evening he will even figure out in what way.

He should still apologize though. On that point he still disagreed with his partner.

* * *

Sharon followed Andy's car home. She had briefly lost sight of its taillights after hitting a red light when Andy drove through on yellow, but she soon caught up with him as traffic slowed him down again.

Andy was the predominant thought on her mind at the moment. She hoped they could have a normal conversation once they got home. He had knocked earlier when he asked if she was ready to head home so she took that as sign that he had calmed down somewhat. She hoped his lonesome car ride would do his temper some good, too.

Sharon herself had calmed down, too. She would not be able to say for sure until she actually tried finally talking to him, but for now she felt fairly certain that she had.

It worried her that things could get so bad between them. For the most part their argument was work-related but, ultimately, there was no denying that it was very much going on on a personal level as well. And the personal side of things was what worried her even more and which was why she fought so hard with him to just focus on work for the time being. She guessed, he understood in the end, since he did back off and had stopped pestering her with attempted apologies, not that that stopped him from roping Provenza into matters, but that was something she tried not to dwell on too much.

While Andy was most certainly to blame for things having escalated like this, because had he not attacked their suspect, they definitely would not be having this argument at all, at the same time Sharon realized the situation had highlighted a certain issue she didn't think she would have to worry about with him. She was yet to decide whether having to face that was a good or bad thing, but for now she was pretty sure she wanted to get to the bottom of it in either case.

And that issue wasn't the obvious fact that clearly Andy could _not_ handle situations in which she got hurt, although she felt somewhat reassured that FID's decision might actually end up helping them on that front, so maybe that was why.

No, the issue that bothered her much more than that was the fact that Andy had been so quick to jump to certain conclusions. Like the conclusion that she set FID loose on him. Like the conclusion that she apparently ought to be ready to turn a blind eye to certain things in order to protect him. Like the conclusion that she wasn't trying to protect him at all.

Of course, he hadn't said so outright, but it was implied. And the implication was enough to upset her enough to let their relationship affect how she handled herself (and him) at work. As she slowly calmed down over the course of her day, she realized that, had his implication not touched upon a concept she thought she'd never have issues with when it came to Andy Flynn, not at this stage of their relationship, she might have been more open to having a conversation with him, even at the risk of it being a bit more heated than she would have appreciated at work. She would still be upset with the way Andy exploded today, but she would not worry about that one crucial thing.

Trust.

Did he really trust her so little? The question started echoing through her mind the moment he refused to believe she was calling FID. And it was an awful kind of echo. Not the kind where, with each repetition the words would become quieter. No, it was an upside-down kind of echo, where the more the words were repeated, the louder they became.

She hated it.

Maybe listening to her team might quiet that echo down.

 _"I've never been so eager to see a day end," she heard Mike say and she felt a pang of guilt, hating that it was her and Andy that caused the sentiment._

 _"Yeah, me, too," Amy said. "You think they'll figure it out?" she asked, almost hesitantly._

 _Sharon really hadn't meant to eavesdrop. She was coming back from Chief Howard's office and heard their barely hushed voices, just as she was about to enter the murder room. She could tell they were standing in front of the murder board, probably clearing it of any signs of their case, now that FID had finally left. In about an hour they would be able to call it a day, too._

 _She knew her argument with Andy was affecting the team, she had earlier practically admitted to Howard as much, and since she knew none of them would ever openly say a word about it to her face, naturally she was curious to hear what they thought about it._

 _So, throwing caution out the window, she stood rooted to the spot and listened._

 _Her eyebrows went up in surprise when she heard Julio being the one to answer Amy's question._

 _"Of course they will," he said optimistically. "They're just temperamental people, it's just their tempers getting the better of them right now," he added. There was a brief pause, and Sharon guessed Mike or Amy must have given him a look of disbelief or something, because he also said, chuckling now. "The Captain might not look it, most of the time, but she's fiery alright."_

 _Sharon had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. Julio wasn't wrong._

 _"Hmm," she heard Mike let out. "You know," he sounded as if he was sharing a piece of trivia, like he was so prone to doing, and that put a smile on her face, "they just look out of sync to me."_

 _"I don't know," Amy sounded contemplative. "I've never seen them this angry, certainly not with each other," she added, and Sharon heard some shuffling, as if one of the photos on the murder board had slipped off, and one of them clumsily caught it before it could fall down on the floor._

 _"Here," Buzz's voice said, the word not at all fitting into the rest of the current conversation. When he went on and said, "But that's only because the Lieutenant misunderstood her," Sharon realized he must have been the one to have caught whatever it was before chipping in on the conversation._

 _"Oh," Amy let out. "Well," the tone of her voice had Sharon imagine she shrugged, "I hope so, because he really has no reason to be so mad," she said. "The Captain on the other hand," she added, trailing off without ever finishing the thought._

 _"Yeah," Julio said. "The Captain was only looking out for him," he added gravely._

 _"Who's looking out for who?" A door closing as Provenza said the words made Sharon jump. She guessed he must have been in the media room or somewhere, catching only the tail end of the sentence._

 _Buzz replied instantly. "The Captain, for Lieutenant Flynn."_

 _It drew a surprised quirk of an eyebrow from Sharon when Provenza suddenly, sounding quite irritated asked, "Don't you have better things to do than gossip?" Sharon heard a quiet thump and guessed he flopped angrily into his chair._

 _He was right. They were gossiping and what was worse, she was eavesdropping on them. And how nobody had yet passed her to catch her in the act was beyond her, too. So, before any of them could offer the Lieutenant an answer, she took a few steps and finally walked into the murder room. Ignoring the deer caught in the headlights looks on their collective faces, she asked, professionally, "Have you finished your reports?" She glanced around the murder room. "Where are Detective Nolan and Andy?" she added._

 _She quickly found out the reports were almost done and that her two missing detectives were in the break room._

 _With that she gave them a quick nod and stepped back into her office._

The team had a point. She and Andy did seem out of sync and this all might just be a bad case of misunderstanding each other.

She took a quick breath, about to follow Andy into her condominium complex's garage.

Well, she was about to find out whether their point was right or wrong.

However, she thought he maybe did have reason enough to be angry. On that she could not agree with her team members.

 **TBC**

* * *

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts! :)


	4. Part IV - Cool Heads

To the guest who hoped for a longer chapter, well, here it is. :)

* * *

 **Part IV - Cool Heads**

They rode up in the elevator to their floor together, but in silence. Once they were inside of the condo, Andy shrugged out of his jacket and slipped off his shoes before, wordlessly, he made his way into the kitchen, probably to make them some tea, as he usually did after a long day. Sharon had taken the time to get into more comfortable clothes, a pair of leggings and a long-sleeved top, and was now sprawled on her back on her living room couch waiting for Andy to get back. She took it as a good sign that they both took their time to go through their after-work routine before diving into what she hoped would not be another argument.

When he walked back in, a tray with indeed, tea on it, in his hands, his tie now loosened, too, she asked, "May I first get something off my chest?"

Andy gave her a surprised look, his step faltering fractionally before he shrugged and, a bit warily, said, "Sure."

"Ouch," she let out, sighing, and he suddenly came to a full stop, just a step away from the coffee table, to give her a puzzled look.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," he told her, positive he had not heard what he thought he had heard.

"Ouch," she repeated, almost pouting now.

Andy just looked at her for a moment. When he realized he _had_ heard her right the first time, suddenly, he burst out laughing.

"It's not funny," she traced her fingers tentatively over her bruised cheek. "It really does hurt," she complained.

"Sorry, I thought it might," Andy said, having succeeded in stopping his unexpected laughter, 'ouch' being a word he had never heard her use, and certainly not over a pout of all things. "Which is why you'll be glad to see this," he said optimistically, putting his tray down on the coffee table and taking something wrapped in a clean kitchen towel off of it.

"Oh, an ice pack," she said in surprise, accepting the item when he offered it to her. When she put it over the side of her face, she let her head fall back over the armrest and groaned in relief before saying, "I'm still not too happy with you, but God," she groaned again, "I love you."

Andy chuckled at her. "Well, that's good to know," he told her, moving in between the table and the couch to sit down. "Scoot," he ordered, tapping her feet.

She silently obliged his request and pulled her knees up to make room for him. When he sat down, he reached for her feet and draped her legs over his lap. She still kept her head back, letting him do as he wished, so, concerned, he asked, "Got a headache?"

"No, thank goodness," she said on a relieved sigh, finally lifting her head and resting it on a pillow to look at him. "However, this," she indicated the bruise underneath the ice, "started throbbing again on my way home."

"Mhm," he said in acknowledgment as he looked down into his lap and, slightly absentmindedly, started rubbing one of her feet.

When, in response, she wiggled her toes, he ceased his movement and looked at her. "What?" he asked, her sudden smile confusing him.

"Nothing, I'm just glad you've calmed down," she told him, shifting on her pillow slightly, to have a better look at him.

"Well," he started sarcastically, "the night's still young," he told her, giving her a pointed look.

She frowned slightly. "I will not apologize for pulling you off the case," she told him evenly, and the fact that there wasn't a trace of her earlier agitation in her tone of voice made her confident that she was past wanting to bite his head off.

He scoffed, but said, a touch of amusement to his words, "I know."

That put a puzzled look on her face and Andy felt her legs tense up in his lap. "Did you expect me to?" she asked carefully, not sure what to make of his scoff.

His eyes widened for a moment. "No," he told her honestly. "You did what you had to do," he admitted, glad to feel her legs relax again. "Besides," he added on a lighter note, "the case was basically over, wasn't much left to take me off of anyway, and I was _still_ stuck with all that paperwork."

A corner of her lips quirked upward but she shook her head at him in disapproval. "Is that why you allowed yourself to lose it like that?" she asked.

The quiet, low voice, she posed her question in, had Andy sigh. He let his head fall over the back of the couch, holding back a groan, and looked at her sideways. "Can you really blame me, Sharon?" he asked quietly. "He hit you, he hurt you, I only wanted to protect you."

"Uh-uh," she disagreed, pointing a finger at him. "You wanted revenge," she told him.

He opened his mouth to argue, but then promptly closed it. She was right. Julio had managed to restrain the guy before he could try attacking her again, or anyone else for that matter, and when he hit back, it was out of his sudden urge to hurt him back, not out of necessity to protect anyone. Even if he weren't willing to admit it, the tape of the entire incident most certainly proved it. It was one of the reasons why FID was so fast to, albeit unofficially, close their investigation today.

"And therein lies our problem," Sharon said, dismissively waving a hand at him as if she had read his thoughts.

Resigned, he lifted his head and focused on her feet again, taking a foot into his hand to resume his earlier ministrations on it.

"It's hard," he admitted in a low rumble. "You know," he lifted his gaze off her feet and set it on her face, "it's been a while since I last lost it like that," he told her, a touch of wonder to his words now.

"I know," Sharon told him, the soft edge her tone of voice took on letting him know she understood his regret over it, too. "And I know we've never been in this kind of situation before," she briefly lifted her ice pack, indicating her injury again, "but I can't do my job if I have to worry about you going off whenever I interview a suspect," she paused and added, "who _may_ or _may not_ become aggressive."

"I know," he said, but she went on over his words.

"Not to mention having to worry about FID breathing down our necks," she said. "Andy, there's a reason why interoffice romances have to be reported!" she added, pinning him with a hard look and unable to keep her voice from raising ever so slightly.

"I know!" he said again, more loudly this time. "But you can't expect me to just not react when somebody takes a swing at you!"

"I can't," she said simply, shrugging even, her voice no longer raised either. "But I think it's fair to expect you think before you do," she informed him, the sentence sounding more like a question and escaping her in a slightly more clipped manner than she would have liked it to.

"Yeah," Andy grumbled. "Well, it was hard to think when my first impulse was to punch the living daylights out of the guy for laying a hand on you," he bit out somewhat angrily.

"Well," she made a conscious decision not to join his renewed frustration, "maybe a week of anger management classes will help you figure out how not to act on that impulse," she told him, offering a smile, or actually half of it since one corner of her mouth was covered by the hand holding her ice pack in place.

Andy groaned and squeezed her foot tightly for a brief moment. "I can't believe you let them sentence me to that," he told her, giving her an incredulous look.

"I did not _let_ them do anything," she immediately responded, a bit too defensively considering that she really had no say in FID's decision. "However, I do believe their punishment might have been different were the two of us not together."

"There's my slap on the wrist then," he muttered, shaking his head, but finally resuming his foot rub.

"Yes," Sharon agreed. "It could have all played out much worse though," she added over a pointed look.

It was true. FID had not only seen Buzz's recording of the incident, but they had also interviewed their entire division, including him and Sharon and also their suspect. Thankfully, as stupid as their suspect seemed to be, he did not even think of suing him and the LAPD for excessive use of force, which was definitely a helpful circumstance. Andy knew that FID had talked to their team members about his and Sharon's relationship, not just about the incident, even if they kept mum about their interviews. While he also knew that this was actually the first time their relationship managed to pose an actual issue at work and that the team had probably corroborated as much, it wasn't hard to guess that that same relationship was why they ultimately decided to send him off to anger management next week. They had probably drawn the same conclusions as Sharon just did. No wonder, considering how long she had headed the division.

He only nodded and grunted in begrudging agreement, before finally meeting her gaze again and asking, "So what's your verdict?"

She considered his question for a moment, giving him a long look. "Will you promise to try not to repeat today's performance?" she finally asked in reply.

He smiled briefly and instead of an answer, offered something entirely different.

"It's strange," he told her, absentmindedly almost. "I can handle suspects yelling at you or getting in your face or," he waved a hand through the air, pausing his foot rub for a second, "well, you get the picture." She smiled, because, yes, she does. "And I know you can handle yourself at work just fine, I do," he said the last two words almost imploringly, "but today, the moment I realized that scumbag actually _hit_ you," he paused and took a quick breath, "I don't know, I just saw red. And I know the guy didn't seem to punch you on purpose," he had realized that when Buzz had pulled up the recording of it for FID and he got a look at it from a less biased angle, "but even if he had only," he put air quotation marks around that last word, "pushed you, I'd be lying if I told you I wouldn't have acted the way I did," he finished on a shrug.

Judging by the way his eyes started wandering aimlessly in front of him, focusing on nothing in particular, he seemed to have more to say, so Sharon stayed quiet, despite his silence, allowing him to finish the obvious search for words he was on, and soon enough he did go on.

"I know you were pissed because I let _us_ ," he waved a hand between them, "affect me like this. I know you always talk about objectivity, having to conduct ourselves professionally and whatnot, but what can I say?" He gave her a sad look. "I guess today proved that, when you get hurt at work, I throw objectivity out the window."

Sharon sighed. "I know how protective you can get, Andy. Whether he punched me or pushed me is irrelevant here because I know your protectiveness would have kicked in anyway," she told him quietly. "I am not holding that against you," she added, meaning the words despite the trouble it got them into today. "The problem today I think, wasn't so much the fact that you attacked our suspect or disobeyed my orders, because whatever we may be telling ourselves, we couldn't have known for sure we would act by the book in a situation like this. Especially with your penchant for trouble," she said that last part on a teasing smile and he rolled his eyes in response. "And as much as I hate to admit it, that's simply fact. Next time, we at least know what to expect." She shrugged on that last sentence before going on. "But what the _real_ problem today perhaps was, was the fact that you actually expected preferential treatment from me afterwards."

Andy's eyebrows shot up. "I don't expect that from you," he instantly argued.

Sharon actually smiled. "Well, maybe not right now, but a few hours ago, you sure did," she told him.

For a moment he just looked at her, blankly. On reflection, he had to admit that, in his anger, he actually _had_ expected it. He was going to name his status of being her boyfriend reason enough not to call FID. And had he been less riled up, he would never have even thought it, let alone tried acting on it. Sure, he'd still be pissed off at FID, because by now it was just ingrained in him to be defensive around that division, whether Sharon worked there or not, but he would most definitely not expect her to sweep the incident under the rug.

Suddenly, realization dawned on him.

"You called them to cover our asses," he told her incredulously, his gaze falling into his lap as he started his ministrations on her other foot now.

She shrugged and gave him a quick, probably involuntary smile, not that he could see it. "Yes, I did," she confirmed without hesitation, in what almost sounded like relief.

"To prove there really was no preferential treatment," he added, looking up at her with an impressed expression on his face now.

"There isn't, Andy," she told him quietly, almost imploringly. "There can't be," she added. "Not if I want to keep doing my job the way I'm supposed to."

Andy hummed. "I should have known," he said just as quietly.

By immediately reporting the incident to FID herself, she made sure nobody would be able to accuse them of trying to cover any of it up should their suspect file a formal complaint. It wasn't against the rules to wait for FID to get called in in the more usual and slower ways, but she did it herself because she wanted to make sure that their relationship was not put up to discussion any more than it would absolutely have to be. While Andy doubted anyone would ever really dare accuse Sharon of trying to cover something up, he could understand that she would still do whatever she could to make sure their integrity remained untouched on the off chance that somebody would dare. It was a way of protecting the entire division, too. Should any rumors about the head of the elite Major Crimes Unit letting one of her Lieutenants get away with beating up on suspects start circulating, they now had at least one fool proof way of shutting them immediately down.

It was sort of funny. For somebody who really did not aspire to join the politics the position of Assistant Chief offered, Sharon sure knew how to play the political game well.

"Yes," she said and didn't even bother hiding the hurt that seeped into the word. While she knew his temper had gotten the better of him, it did hurt a little that he would imply she was throwing him to the dogs. Did he really trust her so little? The question again echoed through her mind, but she wasn't ready to address it just yet.

The way he gently ran a hand down her leg and stopped his massage, let her know he recognized the hurt, but suddenly he scoffed. "Funny how a guy hits you square in the face but it's me who ends up hurting you," he told her regretfully.

She sighed, effectively agreeing with his words. "I thought I'd proven years ago, long before any of this," she waved a hand between them, "started, that I'm always on your side," she quietly told him.

"You did and it's not like I don't trust you or anything, that's never been an issue," Andy was quick to assure her, squeezing her calf briefly. The matter-of-factly way he said that in, had her take a quick breath of relief, the heavy weight of her earlier worries finally lifting without her even having to bring it up. At first Andy just went on, "But you know ho-" but cut himself off when he noticed her reaction. He gave her a puzzled look. "What?" Apparently guessing correctly where her thoughts had gone, he asked, "You thought I didn't?" He sounded rather incredulous.

She only shrugged guiltily, offering him an almost watery smile, the gesture the best admission she could give him at the moment.

He shook his head, at himself probably. "No, Sharon," he said gently, the gravelly quality his voice took on, a clear sign that he was getting emotional, too. He ran his fingers down her shin in what one might have qualified as an apologetic caress and added, "I think we all, not just me," he looked up at her, "realized long before you ever took over Major Crimes that we could trust you." He offered her a crooked smile before going on, suddenly speaking a tad more loudly and with a bit of amusement. "Come on, you're a detective. Who sells his house," over his next words he smirked, "moves in with his girlfriend and goes house hunting with her," the corners of her mouth quirked upwards slightly, "if he doesn't trust said girlfriend?"

Her mouth finally formed a full, amused smile, knowing he was trying to reassure her again and was not really mocking her. "A mooch maybe," she quipped, barely holding back her sudden laughter.

But Andy stayed serious, his earlier teasing now gone, and gave her a bland look. "That was not my point," he grumbled.

She sobered and admitted, a tad defensively even, "Well, with the way you were acting today, I wasn't so sure anymore."

"You _can_ be sure, Sharon," he assured her thickly and she nodded. He found his normal voice before adding, "I didn't mean for you to feel like that, but you know how we get," there was a touch of regret to his voice, "mention FID or IA and we instantly think everyone's out to get us," he said, waving a hand through the air and shaking his head.

She chuckled. "True," she agreed, knowing that even with her as mediator and under much less personal circumstances, IA simply was a sore spot for her division. "Although," she went on more seriously again, "I have to admit," she paused, "I may have been more open to conversation with you today had your implication not hit a little too close to home."

There was no denying that, had it been one of her other team members, she'd have let them give her their side of the story much sooner than she had let Andy do so, regardless of any of their comments.

He considered her for a moment with a raised eyebrow, then suddenly waved her off. "Nah, it's good that you wouldn't let me talk. I'd only have run my mouth off even more and it'd all be an even bigger mess," he told her.

"It's not a mess," she argued, silently agreeing with the first part of his point, since yes, he probably wouldn't have had anything smart to say at the time, and, at his raised eyebrow of disbelief, added, "It's work." She shrugged. "Mixed with a little bit of us," she told him over half a smile. "We were bound to get tested at some point."

"Tested?" Andy scoffed, and she had to laugh, because it was a rather cliche thing to say.

"I'll have to get a grip on myself in the future then," he told her somberly, when she stopped laughing.

"Which is why I'm glad you're stuck with anger management now," she told him and he frowned at the words. "Even if something like this never happens again," she went on, ignoring his frown, "now that we know it's a bigger issue than we thought it might be, I'd rather try at least something." She shrugged and added, "I can handle FID just fine, but I don't want to have to because of our relationship. Not if we can help it."

"Well, then," Andy started, shrugging, "to answer your question," he said and she gave him a momentarily puzzled look before she realized what question he was referring to, "I guess all I really _can_ do is promise to at least _try_ ," he added, sounding rather irritated with himself for not being able to promise more.

"Then you are forgiven," she told him lightly, giving him a wide smile.

"I love you, too, by the way," he suddenly told her, probably in reply to her earlier voiced sentiment, and, despite her surprise, she smiled again at the words.

"So, how mad at me are _you_?" she asked in reply, wiggling her toes to get him back on track again.

He looked up and frowned. "I wasn't angry with _you_ ," he muttered, suddenly sounding exactly that, angry. "It's just this whole situation," he added, frustrated, looking around the room. "It was that dirtbag who pissed me off." He looked at her. "I was only stupid enough to take it out on you," he told her, shaking his head.

"I know," she told him softly, pulling her legs off his lap to sit up next to him.

He chuckled. "So you're calling me stupid?" he asked, watching her as she made herself comfortable.

"Not you," she told him on an easy smile. "Just this Lieutenant of mine, who couldn't get a grip on himself today," she clarified.

Andy didn't laugh at her silly joke. "I guess," he started somewhat begrudgingly, "I should ask Julio for advice."

"Let's see how those anger management classes go first," she said, holding back a smile. Julio's and Andy's temper issues were miles apart from each other.

"I think avoiding those will be incentive enough to refrain from flying off the handle again like that," he muttered, although there was a bit of amusement in his voice now.

She snorted. "Well, whatever works for you, Andy," she told him.

He only shook his head at her and finally laughed, too, glad to see her in a better mood. He was in a better mood now, too.

Having pulled herself together she suddenly informed him, as if he hadn't known by then, "I, on the other hand, _was_ mad at you." She scooted closer to him and put her ice pack down on the free spot next to her.

"Yeah, well, no wonder," Andy told her on a guilty smile. "I punched a suspect, I fought my Captain's direct order and then I spoiled for a fight with my girlfriend in the middle of a packed restaurant instead of eating lunch with her," he listed the things off on the fingers of one of his now free hands.

"Mhm," she hummed, leaning against his shoulder now. "I don't remember the last time I had to yell at any of my team members, least of all you," she told him in a far away voice as if she was searching her memory for exactly such an event.

She really hadn't had to raise her voice at any of them in Major Crimes in years, he realized. He had no idea, and if he were to ask, he would find out that neither had she, when she had last addressed him by rank and surname at work either.

"Yeah," he said, somewhat ruefully. "I guess all of it going down in front of the team didn't help either?" he added, grimacing regretfully at her.

While he hadn't exactly clashed with any of his team members other than Provenza today, there was no denying that everybody felt incredibly uncomfortable with the suddenly chilled and exclusively professional air around him and Sharon. He doubted any of them recalled the last time either one of them had raised their voices at each other. It shocked _him and Sharon_ , so it came as no surprise that it would shock the rest of their division as well.

She looked at him and offered a warm smile. "Not really," she agreed quietly. She suddenly chuckled, covering her mouth with the back of her hand, and said, "I hope they're not too traumatized."

Andy grinned and waved her off. "Nah, they just have one more reason not to get on your bad side," he told her, making her laugh softly.

"I do hope that doesn't happen again though," she told him, more seriously now. "It put a strain on not just _our_ work relationship, but on the squad's as well."

She took a breath in preparation to say more, but Andy quickly interjected. " _And_ you like keeping certain things private," he told her. When she nodded, he muttered, "Trust me, I do, too. And I absolutely hate having to share any of them with FID."

She sighed, relaxing a little more against his shoulder. "All the more reason we try better next time," she told him.

"I really hope there won't be a next time," Andy said absentmindedly, "but, yeah, in case there is, I'll try," he told her, giving her a look that said that was a promise.

" _We_ 'll try," she corrected, raising a pointed eyebrow at him. She had let their relationship become a bit of a problem, too, it wasn't just him.

He smiled and briefly closed his eyes as he nodded. "We'll try," he repeated.

With that, they fell silent for a few moments, Sharon's head now resting against the side of Andy's arm, while he absentmindedly stroked the back of her hand, enjoying the now cleared air between them.

"Tea's gone cold," Sharon suddenly said, pulling them out of their cozy silence.

Andy looked at the table. Not only had it gone cold, they hadn't even touched it. "Want me to make another batch?" he asked. "Or reheat this?" he added, already getting ready to stand up.

"No," she let out on a long sigh, worming an arm behind his back and snuggling into his side, not letting him go anywhere. "This is relaxing enough," she told him.

He relaxed and smiled before dropping a kiss into her hair. "I think so, too," he told her, wrapping an arm around her.

 **TBC**

* * *

A bit of an unexpected end, I know, but bear with me because the conversation continues in the next chapter. By the way, do you wanna have Rusty react to Sharon's bruise? If not, I think I'm ending this with Part V then. :)

And to all those who had hoped for a screaming match here, sorry if I disappointed by not giving you one. XD


	5. Part V - Settling

Guys, your reviews are killing me! I love them! :D

And just a heads-up, I'm filling in a few blanks canon-wise here, but they're mostly based on current spoilers. *shrugs*

* * *

 **Part V - Settling**

"So, tell me," Andy lifted the comfortable bubble of silence they found themselves in, "what did Howard want?" He shifted a bit to give her a better look. "How'd your meeting with him go?"

"Okay," she said, moving out of his side so she could sit back properly and look at him.

He was talking about the meeting she had prior to her little eavesdropping stint today.

 _Chief Howard had called about half an hour ago wanting a word with her once FID left. So now that they had, she found herself sitting across from him at the conference table in his office, waiting for him to start with whatever he wanted to talk about, not that she couldn't already guess._

 _"Long day, huh?" he said, shrugging._

 _The words surprised her but she didn't let it show. Instead she sighed and agreed. "Very long day, Chief."_

 _He smiled briefly, nodding in understanding. "I'm sure it was," he said._

 _When he stayed quiet a moment longer than she thought was usual, Sharon raised her eyebrow at him and asked, "I'm sure you did not summon me, Chief, just to inquire about the length of my day?" There was slight amusement in her question. She did not expect him to just want to chitchat._

 _Howard suddenly sighed and said, "You know, I can't wait for someone to take over this position."_

 _She laughed briefly. "Chief, you are not trying to talk me into fighting for the position myself, now, are you?" she asked._

 _Howard actually chuckled. "Well, it wouldn't hurt trying, Captain, but don't worry," he waved her off, "I know your mind and, if I may be so bold as to say your heart, are set on Major Crimes."_

 _"They are," she agreed on a smile, not minding his boldness at all. "So," she said carefully, "why am I here?"_

 _He sat up a bit straighter in his chair and said, "You know, I've not meddled today because I trusted that you would not skirt the issue, Captain."_

 _"But you'd like to meddle now?" she offered politely. Beyond checking in with her and FID after it all happened, he really had let them just deal with it on their own, and she was rather grateful for it. She doubted Taylor, God rest his soul, would have given her and her division as much space as Howard had._

 _"Oh, I would not_ like _to," he was quick to disagree. "However, I unfortunately, do have to," he admitted._

 _She smiled sympathetically, knowing he really had no interest in playing Assistant Chief, but was only stuck filling in, until finally someone permanent was appointed. "Then by all means, Chief," she waved a hand at him, smiling in amusement, "meddle."_

 _He smiled and finally, albeit still hesitantly, went down to business. "It's all been settled really, and I know your report as well as those written by the FID will fill me in on any of the blanks I still might have," he started, "but there is one thing I do have to ask myself," he informed her._

 _Knowing what that thing was, Sharon smiled again and offered him an answer before he even managed to pose his question. "Rest assured, Chief, that Lieutenant Flynn and I will resolve any lingering issues so that this," she waved a hand somewhere behind her back, "does not happen again."_

 _Howard nodded. "What about_ Andy _and you, though?" he asked. The way his eyes immediately after widened, let Sharon know he had not meant to ask that particular question and that it merely escaped him before he could catch it._

 _His shock only grew when she suddenly let out a soft laugh. "I think, technically, you_ are _allowed to ask," she told him, hoping he would realize that she did not find the inquiry offensive. He relaxed somewhat, so she took it as sign that he did. "I certainly hope so, Chief," she answered him before giving him a pointed look and adding, "But since it's also a rather personal question, I'd rather not elaborate."_

 _"Well," he smiled brightly, "that's enough of an answer for me," he told her. "Because," his voice suddenly took on a slightly secretive edge, the look he gave her, too, "I really hate having to discuss this with you."_

 _Sharon nodded in understanding. "Andy and I will make sure we give you no cause to have to do so again," she assured him._

 _Howard shrugged the words off. "Well, hopefully if you do it anyway, I won't be your Chief anymore," he told her, sounding genuinely hopeful. "Although," he suddenly sounded rather serious, "that will also mean you won't have the advantage of the Chief knowing you and Lieutenant Flynn as well as I do."_

 _She nodded contemplatively. She had met the two candidates and she had gotten the feeling that they would also want to be more involved with her division's work than Chief Taylor or Howard ever had been. Deciding to let him in on her musings, she chose her next words carefully._

 _"I believe both candidates are leaning toward a more hands-on approach once they take over," she told him._

 _Howard nodded, having obviously come to the same conclusion. "Whoever finally takes over will probably want to keep a closer eye on you, too," he added. "Especially after today."_

 _"Well," Sharon shrugged, "we have nothing to hide, Chief," she told him matter-of-factly. "Whoever my next immediate supervisor becomes, I have no intention of starting to handle things any other way than by the book." She shrugged again and added, "Which both Andy and I have already been doing for nearly two years."_

 _"I know," Howard said honestly. "So," he suddenly said, tilting his head toward his office door, and with the slightly higher pitch of his tone of voice, Sharon could tell he was about to change the topic. "I take it the rest of your division had a long day today as well?"_

 _Sharon let out a bitter laugh. "Let's just say their usual order and discipline has certainly been challenged today."_

 _Howard looked at her for a few moments as if weighing his response. "I doubt it," he finally said, sounding rather sure of it, too. "Mind you," he gave her an amused look, "it was hard not to hear your two senior Lieutenants have a go at each other a few times today," he shrugged and clarified, "more often than usually," she laughed, despite not finding the cause of it amusing at all, "but I'm sure they'll get over it."_

 _He must have guessed Sharon wasn't as sure as he seemed to be, because before she could actually respond, he added, "Trust me, Sharon," and his use of her name had her quirk an eyebrow at him, "my situation wasn't exactly like yours," he waved a hand around the room, "but I know what it's like to try balancing work and home, as I'm sure, you're well aware of." He shrugged and came to his point. "Your team knows that, too."_

 _She smiled again and gave him a bemused look. "So they'll just take it in stride?" she asked._

 _"Oh, no," Howard replied instantly, laughing a little. "They'll grumble, gossip, argue, joke around," he listed off, looking lost in thought all of a sudden, "but they'll do their best not to do so in front of you." He ended the sentence on a shrug._

 _Sharon shook her head in amusement. "I'm not sure if that's supposed to worry or comfort me," she said, sounding exactly that, unsure._

 _Howard just shrugged again. "Probably both. Especially since I'm not sure they'd do their best around Lieutenant Flynn," he told her._

 _Sharon gave the ceiling a quick look, making an effort not to let her head fall back and groan, and shook her head again. As if it wasn't bad enough that the team had to bear witness to any of this in the first place, them giving Andy a hard time, whether in jest or not, would not help him keep his temper in check._

 _Howard laughed at her. He knew there was more to her than just the intrepid Captain Sharon Raydor, but getting glimpses into the 'more' part of her, still seemed to be quite the sight for him._

 _"Anyway," he said, the tone of his voice clearly bringing their little chat to a conclusion, and she looked at him again, "I only wanted to get that," he waved a hand at her, probably indicating the matter he had needed to officially address to a few moments ago, "out of the way, Captain."_

 _Recognizing the polite dismissal, Sharon got to her feet. "Thank you, Chief Howard," she told him. For the briefest of moments she hesitated before adding on a smile, "I appreciate the pep-talk, too."_

 _It wasn't a pep-talk per se, but she did in fact appreciate him trying to reassure her of her division's dealing with everything. She had been rather isolated today after the incident and while she did not_ need _actual reassurance, she had to admit that she had been in dire need of a less tense conversation with someone. And if it ended up including a bit of reassurance, too, well, that was just an added bonus, considering the day she had had._

 _As if having read her mind Howard said, "Don't mention it, Captain." He shrugged and added, "If there's one thing I've learned since filling in for our late Chief," he looked around the office, "it's that it can get lonely at the top."_

 _She smiled again and nodded. "It certainly can," she confirmed._

When she was done with her little account of things, it was the last part of it that Andy addressed first.

"You really feel lonely at the top?" he asked, genuine concern tinting his words.

Sharon shrugged and took a moment to decide on her answer. "Being the boss," she finally started, "means I sometimes have to be alone. It's part of the job description, really," she answered dismissively.

"That doesn't answer my question," Andy said, frowning a bit now, not liking that she seemed to be avoiding it.

She sighed. "No, I don't feel lonely," she finally told him and it was an honest answer.

"But?" Andy prodded, recognizing a 'but' was coming by the tone of her voice.

"But," Sharon repeated and took a quick breath before actually finishing the sentence, "maybe I did feel lonely _today_ ," she admitted.

To her surprise, Andy smiled. "Me, too," he informed her.

She hummed in response, looking at him. She believed him. Working with him today without having his support which she usually always had, made her feel more lonely than when he wasn't at work at all. It wasn't as if she spent her days at work exclusively relying on him. No, she knew she could, both in his presence and absence, fall back on the support of the rest of her team, but it was awfully lonely knowing that today she couldn't fall back on Andy's support at all. Although, looking back at it now, maybe she still could, it only _felt_ like she couldn't due to the circumstances.

He nudged her shoulder with hers, purposefully snapping her out of the thoughts he realized must have distracted her. Guessing they were probably the same as his, he addressed an entirely different matter.

"Do you really think the new Assistant Chief might keep a more watchful eye on us?" he asked, sounding a bit concerned.

She had given this a bit of thought after returning to her office from her meeting with Howard and had reached a few conclusions.

"It is a possibility," she said, tilting her head at him. "Especially after your little stunt today," she added.

"Mhm," he let out, looking away from her to let that sink in.

"But it doesn't matter whether the new Chief does or doesn't though," Sharon told him. When he looked at her again, she continued. "There's still nothing wrong with this." She waved a hand between them. "The new Chief might meddle a bit more than we'd appreciate, but there's nothing we can or should do about it."

At the puzzled furrow of his brow, she clarified. "It would still be business as usual, Andy," she was speaking in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "And if I may add, this business was very much by the book at work so far. I don't see that changing any time soon. Or ever, really," she added confidently.

"Unless I blow a fuse if my temper gets the better of me again," Andy muttered, probably already picturing their not yet appointed new Assistant Chief playing hall monitor in regards to his and Sharon's relationship.

Sharon laughed. "Or one of the rest of the squad does," she told him, knowing how temperamental they could get when they thought they were being put under more scrutiny than they felt was necessary.

Andy gave her a surprised look. "How come this doesn't worry you?" he asked, shaking his head. "You don't know what this new guy, or gal, is gonna be like. What if your every move is questioned? And even more so just because I happen to be your Lieutenant slash boyfriend?"

"Because I know the rules," she told him simply. "And whatever the new Chief does or doesn't do will not deter me from following them," she added, as if that should have been self-explanatory and enough of a reassurance.

But Andy only frowned, not at all assured of anything. "What if one of us is forced to transfer or retire though?" he asked, the fear only just then popping into his head.

"On what grounds?" Sharon asked, sounding surprised even though her voice had already taken on that low, dangerous tone that said she would not be putting up with that even if there were any grounds for it. "Our relationship is not against the rules. And FID certainly sees no issue with it despite what happened today."

"I did have that blood clot. Then the heart attack," Andy started, but Sharon suddenly quite heatedly interrupted him.

"And you expect the higher ups to force you into retirement with your now perfectly clean bill of health?" she asked, disbelief evident.

Andy sighed, finally relenting. "Still doesn't mean I'll like it," he muttered.

Sharon smiled and leaned against his shoulder now. "If it comes to that, I won't like it either," she assured him. "It might even try my own patience," she added, sounding like it already may be doing so. "But it's like Chief Howard said, they won't have the advantage of already knowing us. So all we maybe _can_ do is let the next Chief _get_ to know us."

Andy hummed. "And if our relationship seeps into work again?" he asked, referring to his little outburst today.

She lifted her head off his shoulder to give him a bland look. "Andy," she paused, making sure he was meeting her look, "I think it's safe to say, especially after today, that we're long past our relationship just _seeping_ into work," she told him.

He rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean," he grumbled, slightly irritated by her almost aloof confidence about this.

"I know," she said, more softly now, as she put her head back against the side of his arm. "But I don't think that's something to worry about unless it really happens again." She added, "And I'm confident that it won't. Maybe the new Chief will need more convincing of that, maybe not," she shrugged, "but either way, all we really can do is keep on doing what we have been so far." Her tone took on a note of an ever so slightly playful warning. "Minus the beating up on suspects, of course."

She felt Andy finally relax underneath her cheek. He nodded. "Okay," he said, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into his side. "Business as usual then," he confirmed.

"That's settled then," she said on a smile.

He chuckled. "Yeah, apparently it is," he said, seeming rather surprised by the fact that he actually felt okay with letting it all just play out on its own.

"I think the team was right," she suddenly said as she made herself comfortable against him.

"About what?" Andy asked.

"We were completely out of sync today," she answered simply.

Andy's eyebrows shot up. "They told you we were out of sync? When?" he asked, disbelief evident. He even pulled back a bit to give her an incredulous look.

She pushed back and for a split second a wide-eyed look crossed her features before she grimaced and shrugged. Andy's eyebrows only went up higher. "I may have overheard them talking about us," she admitted.

Andy's eyebrows finally lowered, his expression now turning into a smirk. "Are you eavesdropping on us, Captain?" he asked smugly.

"Ha-ha," she let out sarcastically, but then quickly, albeit reluctantly, added, "A little maybe."

Andy started laughing, and she pulled back completely, putting some distance between them to purse her lips over an unimpressed glare at him. His sudden current teasing was not the point of her earlier conclusion.

Noticing her, he sobered somewhat but still rather cheerfully said, "You know, I've always wondered how you seem to always know everything."

She gave him a small smile even though she was still not amused by it, and said, "I do not eavesdrop on any of you." At the quirk of his eyebrow, she amended the statement, "Not on purpose at least."

Andy suddenly just brushed it off. "Well, I already knew you were sneaky, so," his amused grin finished the sentence for him.

She only rolled her eyes at him, so he grew more serious and tugged on her hand to get her to scoot closer to him again. When she did, he quite contemplatively said, finally addressing her previous statement, "You know, maybe we were, I mean, this only escalated because we completely misread each other today." And because he punched a suspect, but that went without saying at this point in the conversation.

She relaxed into his side again, wrapping her arm around him again and only hummed in agreement. "I doubt our tempers really helped matters either," she added.

He let out something in between a laugh and a scoff. "Yeah," he said gruffly.

"I feel awful about making the team uncomfortable, too, though," she told him quietly.

"Yeah, me, too," he agreed. "But don't worry, when we get back to work tomorrow all synced up again," she smiled at the words, "they'll forget all about it," he assured her.

She shifted a bit to give him a concerned look. "So you don't think I should address any of this?"

Andy looked at her blandly. "And say what exactly?" he asked, surprised that she would even consider it.

Her brow furrowed slightly as she thought about that. What was there to say really? _Hi, sorry for fighting with my boyfriend in front of you?_ _But don't worry, we made up?_ As if things weren't awkward enough. "Well," she started, opening her mouth, but closing it promptly, almost like a fish on dry land She was drawing a complete blank.

"See?" he told her, waving a hand at her. "There's nothing _to_ say." He shrugged. "We go back to business as usual and that'll be enough for them," he assured her.

"Business as usual?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow at him.

He grinned. "Yup," he quipped.

She briefly narrowed her eyes at him, considering his idea, then finally relented and said, "Fine." before comfortably resting her head against him again.

"That's settled then," he told her, and she didn't need to see his face to know he was smirking again.

"Apparently it is," she said pointedly, making him chuckle.

With that, they seemed to drop the matter and they fell into a bit of a silence again.

"You know," Sharon finally spoke again, she seemed lost in thought, "I'm glad Rusty's not home." Somewhat guiltily, she added, "Actually I'm glad I won't be seeing him until tomorrow night."

At first, her admission put a puzzled look on Andy's face, but then he realized why. "He'll freak out when he sees this," he said, waving a hand at her bruised face.

She chuckled. "He will," she confirmed. "And I'd much rather he have his freak-out tomorrow than tonight," she added.

"You do realize," Andy pulled back slightly to give her a look, "that this will only look worse tomorrow? And that you have two more kids that might find this," he indicated her face, "unusual?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I do realize that," she told him sarcastically. "But I need a break from putting out fires all day," she told him, suddenly sounding quite tired, mentally much more than physically.

He pulled her closer to himself again, and on a guilty sigh let out, "I'm sorry."

He knew what fires she was referring to. His temper. Her temper. Him butting heads with FID. Him butting heads with Provenza. The list went on and on.

She squeezed his side and mumbled, "Me, too."

Because it obviously wasn't just him who could have handled matters better.

In mutual forgiveness, they wordlessly just snuggled even more into each other's sides and lapsed into another silence, both coming to the conclusion that they had finally put the ordeal behind them.

Suddenly a new thought crossed Andy's mind. "So, was this our worst fight yet?" he asked her.

The slightly higher pitch of his voice had Sharon look up at him. "Definitely," she answered. "Why?" she asked, his sudden grin making her suspicious now.

"Well," his grin turned into a smirk, "you said Rusty's not home tonight, right?" he asked unnecessarily.

She rolled her eyes, but then confirmed it with a firm nod, a smile already playing at her lips, anticipating what topic was on his mind now.

"Okay," he said, "so I know you just said you've had enough of fires for the day, but would you mind if I started another one anyway?" he asked, the question sounding positively flirty now.

She laughed and buried her face in his chest for a few moments. "No, what exactly do you have in mind?" she asked him, looking up again, already very much knowing what exactly he had in mind.

Instead of a verbal reply, he planted his lips on hers. She laughed again but quickly kissed him back.

She had only just properly relaxed into their unexpected make-out session, when Andy abruptly pulled back. He grinned at her slightly disappointed expression, and took off her glasses, effectively explaining his action. "You know what the best part about fighting is?" he asked, once her glasses were deposited safely on the coffee table.

She laughed, but answered his question with what she knew he'd wanted to tell her. "Making up," she quipped, before tugging on his suspenders to pull him into another kiss.

He smiled against her lips, but responded with equal fervor. Gently, he pushed her down to lie on the couch, his hands already finding their way underneath her top. He had barely bunched it up when, suddenly she hissed into the kiss and, both worried and surprised, he quickly backed off.

"What?" he asked, giving her a concerned once over, his eyes settling on her bruise, worried it was more painful than she originally let on.

Sharon took a breath and reached behind her back for something. "Cold," she said, pulling out the ice pack she had put down there a while ago.

He laughed but took it out of her hand to flop it down on the table next to her glasses. "There," he said as he turned his attention to her again. "Now, where was I?" he asked, leaning down.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, barely able to keep her threatening laughter at bay. " _I_ was apparently trying to put out another fire," she told him, eyeing the discarded ice pack on the table.

He laughed again. "Uh-uh, not this time," he argued, before silencing her finally escaped laughter with another kiss.

 **TBC**

* * *

Aaaand fade to black! Haha!

Btw, do tell me what you thought of the bit with Howard, because I have no clue if it made any sense or not! I think Sharon and him have an interesting work dynamic (since The Closer, really) and I wish it would be explored on Major Crimes more, especially now with his current position. This was just me trying to play with that a bit, I guess.

Also, regarding Rusty. I'm not his biggest fan at the moment, but for those of you who are, I've already come up with a little something that hopefully, those of you who could have done without him here, will still want to read as well. As much as he sometimes annoys me, I do love him when he's not shoved in our faces, and I still like writing him, but in a way that fits the bill of what wouldn't annoy _me_ on the show. XD

Oh, and since some of you mentioned wanting to see the next workday, I'll see what pops into my head in regards to that.


	6. Part VI - Interruption

There's a reference to a deleted scene from season 4 here. If you've seen the deleted scenes, I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, well, please, go, look them up! :)

Otherwise, enjoy!

* * *

 **Part VI - Interruption**

"Maybe we sh-" Sharon started saying, when she found a moment, but Andy, practically lying on top of her, had apparently only paused long enough to take another breath before going back to kissing her, effectively cutting off her sentence.

He grinned crookedly, when she put her hands over his cheeks and firmly tore his lips away from hers, trying to catch her breath and probably her train of thought as well.

"Yes?" he drawled on a smirk and tried leaning in again, but her hold on his face had not let up so, instead he could only wait for her to answer.

As far as making up was concerned, for starters, they had spent the better part of the last fifteen minutes lazily making out on the couch. They were both flushed and slightly out of breath, Andy's suspenders hanging loosely against the side of his legs, his dress shirt no longer tucked into his pants, Sharon's top bunched up during Andy's needy search for skin contact and her hair in a state she probably wouldn't have dared leave the condo in, let alone go to work in. It was when Andy unclasped her bra, that she realized that she was in the mood for a more comfortable place for this, so she attempted to let Andy know as much.

She ran her thumbs over his cheeks, smiling at him. "Maybe," there was a breathless quality to her voice, "we should take this to the bedroom," she finally finished her earlier sentence.

In response, realizing her hold on him had finally slackened, he only quickly kissed her once more. He chuckled when she lifted her head to go after him, after he finally pulled back to actually respond to her suggestion. "Why? Rusty's not home, remember?" he asked but did not let her respond and, instead leaned in again to resume his earlier task.

"Oh, he's home alright," a voice suddenly said.

Andy froze, not believing his ears. Sharon's eyes went wide in equal disbelief and, when he looked up, sure enough his suspicions were confirmed, and, suddenly, as if burned by each other, him and Sharon all but flew apart to sit up on each side of the couch, putting a more respectful distance between them. They had not heard the keys rattling, not even the door finally opening.

"Rusty," Sharon found her voice first, turning around while frantically working on pulling her top down and straightening her hair. She could practically feel Andy's smug look, knowing he was probably much more amused by this than she was, no matter how much he had been startled by it, too. "I thought you were staying the night at Gus's," she said softly, watching as Rusty flopped his bag down on the floor next to the door and slipped out of his shoes before turning to face her.

"He kicked me out-" Rusty started matter-of-factly, but promptly cut himself off when his eyes fell on her face. "Oh, my God," he let out, eyes going wide as he took a few long strides to reach her on the couch, "what happened?" he asked, giving her face a concerned once over. "Who did this to you? When? Why didn't you call? What about Ricky and Emily? Did you call them?" he fired the questions at her in quick succession, crouching down to get a better look at her.

He was ready to ask more questions, ignoring Sharon's attempts of getting his attention in order to actually answer some of them, when Andy quickly leaned over her shoulder and snapped his fingers in front of Rusty's face. "Hey!" he said sharply.

Sharon did not expect the loud exclamation and jumped when it escaped Andy just behind her ear. Still, thankfully, it snapped Rusty out of his overreacting frenzy and for a moment, he looked blankly at him before actually _focusing_ on him. The instant he did, Rusty frowned at him and straightened up again.

"Aren't you supposed to be the one in the line of fire?" Rusty suddenly barked at him, having obviously come to the conclusion that whatever happened must have happened at work.

"Rusty!" Sharon let out shocked, feeling Andy momentarily tense up behind her.

Rusty looked at her face one more time and then flopped down on the chair next to him. "He _is_!" he defensively reiterated.

Andy squeezed Sharon's shoulder and leaned in to quickly mumble into her ear, "Freak-out's an understatement." With that, he leaned against the back of the couch again, knowing it was best to let Sharon try to handle Rusty herself first.

Sharon rolled her eyes at him but addressed her son again. "Andy is not my personal bodyguard at work," she scolded him over a hard look. Rusty made an attempt to speak up but Sharon purposefully loudly said, "And," making him close his mouth, so she could continue, "what happened was that a suspect got out of hand and hit me," she explained more calmly. "And I didn't call you, or Ricky and Emily, because there's nothing to worry about." She waved a hand through the air. "It looks worse than it is," she added dismissively.

Behind her, Andy suddenly scoffed, so she shot him an unimpressed glare, but he only challenged it with a look of his own, so, deciding that this would have been his reaction no matter what kind of injury she had sustained, and that therefore, there was no point in arguing with him, she turned her attention back to Rusty who was now apparently allowed to talk.

"What happened?" he asked, less agitated now. "Are you in pain, mom?" he added worriedly.

Andy jumped in to answer this time. "Like she said," he started, "a suspect got out of hand and before we could restrain him or Sharon could dodge him, he managed to land a punch on her." His voice went dangerously low with those last five words.

"He was trying to push me, we think," Sharon was quick to add, "but Julio was trying to get him under control and instead," she shrugged and pointed at her face, "this happened. The ice," she tilted her head toward the discarded ice pack on the coffee table and Rusty quickly eyed it, "numbed it a bit so it doesn't really hurt either, Rusty," she assured him soothingly.

He sighed, looking between them. His gaze fell on Andy's right hand as he absentmindedly tapped his knee with it. "What's that?" he asked on a frown.

"What's what?" Andy asked, puzzled.

"That," Rusty pointed at his hand, where the bruising was noticeable even if it did not look nearly as angry as Sharon's. Sharon followed his pointing to see what he was talking about, too.

"Got my revenge on the bastard," Andy muttered and Rusty's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Sharon pursed her lips at him and turned to Rusty again. "It's a long story, Rusty, but I really am alright," she tried to reassure him and put the matter to rest. She really didn't feel like going into details about it and frankly, she wasn't entirely convinced Rusty needed to know all the details anyway.

"What about the suspect?" Rusty directed the question at Andy, clearly not ready to drop it just yet.

"Got a few bruises on his own now and is behind bars for the rest of his life for murder," Andy said, shrugging.

Rusty gave him an impressed look, then sought out Sharon's eyes for confirmation. When she, albeit begrudgingly, nodded, he sighed in relief, finally relaxing in his chair and much more calmly asked, "So, you're really okay, mom?"

Sharon smiled and reached out to briefly pat his hand in reassurance. "I really am, Rusty," she confirmed softly.

He took a deep breath and nodded, almost absentmindedly, but said nothing more in response.

Sharon exchanged a concerned look with Andy and was about to ask Rusty if he was okay, when suddenly he visibly shuddered, an "Ugh!" leaving his lips.

Both Sharon's and Andy's eyebrows shot up, bracing themselves for what they expected would be another round of Rusty freaking out, but he only nervously chuckled at them before offering an explanation. "What on earth did I just walk in on?" he asked in a high tone of voice and judging by his wide-eyed look, Andy and Sharon perhaps _were_ in for another round of freaking out, but for an entirely different reason this time.

Sharon had the good sense to blush, but Andy only gave Rusty an irritated look and sarcastically said, "What do you think, kid?"

"Oh, God," Rusty let out on a groan while not only Andy but Sharon, too, started laughing. He suddenly pinned Sharon with a look. "Remember when you first told me about this?" he asked her, erratically, in circles, waving a hand at the 'this' in question.

Not knowing where he was going with this, Sharon sobered and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Yes," she confirmed, dragging the word out on a questioning note.

Rusty immediately said, "Well, this," he again waved a hand at them, but for a different reason now, "is why I reserve the right to be disgusted by him."

Andy immediately frowned. "What?" he asked, offended now, but, almost at the same time, Sharon burst out laughing, failing to properly cover up her escaping snorts with the palm of her hand. "What?" Andy repeated, even more offended now, aiming the question at her this time.

She only laughed more. Rusty did, too.

Taking that as confirmation that, despite the rather awful-looking bruise on her face, Sharon really was alright, he finally got to his feet, ready to retreat to his bedroom. He was going to excuse himself, too, but the moment he was up, Sharon sobered and asked, "Did you say that Gus kicked you out?"

"Huh?" Rusty let out, needing a second to figure out what she was talking about.

Although sporting a slightly suspicious expression now over their earlier exchange, Andy looked up at him, looking curious, too.

"Oh," Rusty let out when his brain finally kicked into gear. "He's coming down with the flu or something," he said, waving both of them off. He rolled his eyes and added, "Didn't want me to come down with it, too, what with my internship and exams and all, so he sent me home."

"Oh," Sharon said softly, smiling slightly at Gus's attentiveness.

"I've stocked him up with vitamins though," Rusty said, absentmindedly, rounding his chair now.

Sharon's smile only grew. "That's nice of you," she told him, proudly. When he only shrugged in response as if saying "No big deal." she asked, "You going to bed now?" It wasn't exactly bedtime yet.

He turned on his heel to give her a bland look. "Well, I'm not hanging around for this," he told her as he again, waved a hand at them, his tone of voice giving away what could only be labeled as shocked disgust. Sharon pursed her lips at him, having not expected _that_ as an answer, while Andy started chuckling, but Rusty quickly addressed him as well. "Andy," he started seriously, "you've ruined suspenders for me," he complained.

Sharon put her head in her hand in embarrassment, but Andy's eyebrows shot up and he looked down his chest, only then realizing he hadn't pulled them back over his shoulders. He had tucked his shirt back in, but had forgotten about the suspenders. What was more, one of them was attached to his pants by only the back button. When the front one had come off, he couldn't recall. However, when he finally noticed it, he only shrugged and said, "Well, next time, Rusty, if you have a change of plans, a heads-up would be nice."

Rusty suddenly looked mildly offended and threw his hands out. "I texted you!" he all but shouted at Sharon, startling her. "Both of you!" he added, looking at Andy again.

Sharon lifted her head to give him a wide-eyed look. "I didn't h-"

"Oh, God, mom," Rusty took a step back in an exaggerated manner, holding a hand up to stop her from speaking. "Do not tell me _why_ you didn't hear your phone, please," he begged.

Sharon gave him an unimpressed look, not at all appreciating that by now he was openly mocking her instead of being genuinely uncomfortable with any of it. "Actually, I was going to say that I didn't have it on me," she told him pointedly.

"Yeah, Rusty, me neither," Andy casually chipped in, "I left mine in my jacket and it's on vibrate."

"And my phone's in our bedroom, also on vibrate," Sharon added, nodding.

"See," Andy said, before Rusty could respond. "Perfectly innocent explanations." He suddenly grinned and added, "Get your mind out of the gutter, kid."

Sharon let another fit of snort-laughter come over her and Rusty shot her a genuinely offended look. Deciding to call this a lost battle, when Andy only continued grinning at him while Sharon kept failing miserably at pulling herself together, he then rolled his eyes and turned to finally go into his bedroom. "Good night," he said pointedly, almost singsonging the words.

"Good night," both Sharon and Andy threw his way, Sharon on a finally abating laugh, Andy on his now smug smile.

"Oh, I can't believe that just happened," Sharon said once they heard Rusty's door close with a purposefully loud slam. Under less shocking circumstances, she might have actually wondered how it was that something like this had never happened before.

Andy chuckled. "Well, look at it from the bright side," he told her.

Sharon smiled. "Yes, at least he's no longer freaking out over my bruise," she said appreciatively. "I expected a much longer inquisition, to be honest."

"Oh, that's not the bright side I was talking about," Andy told her and when she registered the slightly mischievous tone in his voice, she turned her head to look at him.

"Please, enlighten me," she said, carefully curious now.

Andy snaked a hand up her back beneath her top, and before she could stop its wandering, he found what he was looking for and said, "At least I haven't gotten round to getting _this_ off of you," he told her smugly, expertly clasping her bra closed again.

Sharon dropped her head into both of her hands and started silently laughing.

Andy grinned, looking at her. "Now, Captain," he started, his voice shaking with his barely held back laughter, "if I didn't know better, I'd say you were flustered."

The words worked like a switch and her laughter stopped and her head snapped up to look at him and he finally burst out laughing. For a moment she looked like she had an equally smart ass retort for him, but suddenly her face erupted in a wide smile and, instead she turned around to fully face him and kissed him, effectively shutting him up. She pulled quickly back though, when she heard Rusty's bedroom door open again.

Andy just grinned at her but burst out laughing again, when a second later, Rusty, obviously seeing the light was still on in the living room, yelled out, "Caution! I'm headed to the bathroom!"

Sharon shook her head at both her boyfriend and her son and got to her feet, tugging on Andy's hand. "Let's go to bed," she told him, already pulling him toward their bedroom. At 8:30 she could call it an early night, too, why not?

Andy followed her, but suddenly, Rusty's earlier remark popped into his head again and, now completely serious, he asked, "What did Rusty mean by 'disgusted by me'?" He stopped walking, making her stop, too, and added, "I'm not disgusting, I'm delightful." He proudly puffed his chest out at that final word.

Sharon laughed. "Sometimes," she quipped, before killing the lights and, letting go of his hand, turned around to make the last few steps toward their bedroom.

Standing there in almost complete darkness now, Andy shook his head at her and grumbled after her, "That does not answer my question!"

The lights in the bedroom went on and with it Sharon's head peeked out of the doorway. "Well, come in and I'll show you," she quipped before disappearing from view again.

Shocked for a moment, Andy just stared at the spot he last saw her head in, before shaking himself out of his stupor and eagerly going after her. "Rusty's home now, you know," he muttered when he entered the room. He found Sharon looking for a pair of pajamas.

She just laughed. "Whose mind's in the gutter now, Andy?" she asked.

Andy met her question with a challenging raise of an eyebrow.

She knew what he'd do before he even took the few purposeful steps toward her, making sure to close the door behind him.

When he reached her, and he just happened to be invading her personal space, too, he answered confidently, "Both of ours."

She chuckled at him, expecting him to kiss her so they could pick up where they left off before Rusty's rude interruption, but he stood motionless, practically daring her to deny it, his still raised eyebrow clearly teasing now, too.

Finally, she rolled her eyes, giving in, and kissed him first.

 **TBC**

* * *

This deteriorated into utter silliness, I know, but I couldn't help myself.

Next part's the final part, by the way! :)


	7. Part VII - Business as Usual

Thank you for following me on this little journey. As always, I loved hearing from you and your reviews really kept me going.

Here's the final part of this story. I hope I managed to keep everybody in character.

Anyways, give it a read, tell me what you think and most importantly, enjoy! :)

* * *

 **Part VII - Business as Usual**

When Andy and Sharon agreed things the next day would be business as usual they certainly did not have this in mind.

They were running late. Actually, _Sharon_ was running late, and Andy was set to make it into work just in time since she ushered him out of the condo ahead of her while she dealt with the little bit of mess she alone had gotten herself into.

They were both standing in the hallway, ready to go, when Sharon's phone had gone off.

Sharon's face lit up when she checked it, and, knowing who she reserved that expression for, Andy had to smile at the sight. She only lit up like that if one of her two eldest children called or visited. But since both had the habit of calling this early on a workday, he couldn't say which one of the two it exactly was. Recently, he had been in on some of those calls. Sometimes they were quick and ended at home, sometimes they lasted as long as it took to reach LAPD headquarters, the conversation taking up the entire drive over there.

So he wasn't surprised when Sharon, of course, picked up, but his eyes grew wide, when he realized she was not bringing her phone up to her ear, but was keeping her eyes on the screen as she accepted the call. It was a FaceTime call, he realized.

"Sharon," he tried to warn her quietly, but it was too late.

"Hi, Emily," Sharon said, smiling delightfully when her daughter's live image graced her phone's screen.

Andy grinned, loving the way Sharon, without fail, always became positively giddy whenever she saw either her daughter's or son's face, but his grin quickly vanished to be replaced by a grimace, when the next words he heard were not a cheerful greeting in return, but Emily's shocked, "Oh, my God, mom, your face! What happened?"

Before her daughter even got all the words past her lips, Sharon's eyes got wide and she threw Andy a look of horror, realizing her blunder. He only threw an arm out and shook his head at her as if telling her, "You walked into that one yourself, my dear."

"Emily," she looked at her daughter again who was still busy shooting questions at her. "Emily," she repeated a bit more loudly as she made her way into the living room to sit down, knowing it might take a moment or two to calm her down. On the third try, Emily finally quieted down and let her mother speak.

"It's nothing," Sharon said reassuringly, having taken a seat on her couch.

She had more to say, but Emily incredulously repeated, "It's nothing?" She yelled her next words, "Mom, half your face is blue!"

In any other situation, Sharon would have groaned and complained about her makeup doing a poor job of hiding the bruise, instead she smiled at her daughter in what she hoped was a placating manner, and said, "It was work, a suspect got a little out of hand and-"

"Work?" Emily repeated, again sounding incredulous. "Where was Andy?" she asked. "Where _is_ Andy?" she added quickly, narrowing her eyes and judging by the way they started wandering, she was clearly checking her screen for any signs of him.

"Morning, Emily," Andy said. He had followed Sharon into the living room and leaned over the back of the couch behind her now to let Emily see him.

"What the hell happened, Andy?" she instantly asked.

It was Sharon who replied however. "As I was saying, Emily," she started pointedly, her undertone clearly scolding her daughter's obvious rudeness, "a suspect got a little out of hand and he hit me by accident," she explained.

"How does a suspect hit you by accident?" Emily asked sarcastically. "And where were _you_?" she added, and although they could not really tell, clearly she was looking at Andy on her screen.

Andy however, checked the time, and sighed before addressing Sharon. "We're gonna be late," he warned.

Sharon sighed, too. "Emily, can I call you back later? We're running late, and I don't think this is a conversation fit for a car drive. I promise I am ok-"

But that only had Emily interrupt her to ask another question. "Mom, when exactly did this happen?" She was waving a hand in front of her face.

Sharon took a breath and decided to answer. "Yesterday."

"Yesterday?" Emily repeated. "When exactly yesterday? Last night?" she added and she sounded slightly hopeful, probably because that would explain why her mother hadn't called her. It would have been the middle of the night in New York after all.

Sharon lifted a finger at her phone, silently asking Emily to hold on for a bit, ignoring her protests as she muted the call and turned toward Andy. "I have to talk to her," she told him, resigned.

"What about work?" Andy asked, not disagreeing with her.

Sharon considered him for a moment then, finally coming to a decision, replied, "You go ahead." She rolled her eyes. "I'll have to call Ricky now, too. She's not going to keep quiet even if I ask her to," she added, sounding slightly exasperated.

Andy nodded, straightening up. "You sure you don't need any help with that?" he asked, tilting his head at her phone.

Sharon smiled, grateful for the offer but nodded her head. "Yes, this is not the first injury they've seen on me, but they always freak out, so," she trailed off, suppressing an eye roll. "Besides, it's best only one of us is late today," she added more seriously.

Andy sighed, knowing it was even more important now, considering the incident yesterday, but finally nodded, too. "Okay." He leaned down to peck her on the lips. "Good luck," he told her, already on his way to the door. "See you at work."

Sharon smiled and said, "Thank you." When the door closed behind him, she sighed and added quietly, "I'll need it."

She then finally went back to her call.

The moment the sound was on again, Emily let out an incredulous, "Mom, I can't believe you just muted me!" She was waving both of her hands in front of her face now.

Sharon sighed. Yes, she was definitely going to be late for work today.

...

Andy made it into work on time and found the entire rest of his team already seated at their desks.

"Good morning," Andy casually offered as he made his way toward his desk.

They had all looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching, but when their eyes fell on Andy, the briefly expectant looks he caught a glimpse of on their faces was replaced by that of disappointment and, instead of offering the same greeting in return, they just offered a barely discernible mumble of what was supposed to be "Morning." and returned to doing whatever they were doing before his appearance interrupted them.

Andy shot them a puzzled look, not that anyone was looking at him anymore. It took him a moment to understand what was going on.

There was nothing unusual about him being last into work. However, he knew that, ever since he moved into Sharon's condo, it _was_ rather unusual for him to arrive without her, at least on days when he was not rolled out to a crime scene. Even when they took separate cars, they usually walked into the murder room together.

And just _how_ unusual it all currently seemed to his colleagues, was written all over their faces.

Really, he should have expected this. Clearly him coming into work without Sharon, especially _today_ of all days, was not what his team had hoped for.

But Andy just rolled his eyes and, hoping to ease their obvious worries, said, "She got held up with something." On a chuckle, he added, "We did not kill each other."

Instead of the desired laugh, all his words got out of them was a nod or a mumbled "Okay." or "Mhm." Judging by the looks on their faces, they either didn't believe him or didn't find the joke funny.

Andy sighed, concluding that probably both seemed to be the case. "Business as usual my ass," he muttered under his breath, but made no attempt to try clearing anything up. Instead, he just continued on his way to his desk. Apparently he was wrong last night. He and Sharon would have to address this after all.

When he sat down, he fished his phone out of his pocket with the intention of letting her know what he just walked into.

But at the last moment he decided against it. He would tell her when she arrived. They needed to figure out what to tell the team anyway and they wouldn't be able to do so via texting, especially if she was already headed this way.

"You done any time soon?" his text said instead.

"Finally. Heading to the car now," her text replied a minute later.

Andy smiled. He could easily picture the exasperated sigh she would have said that 'finally' on.

"What are you grinning about?" Provenza's annoyed voice startled Andy and he clumsily swiveled around in his chair to look at him.

"None of your business," Andy retorted in an equally annoyed manner, putting his phone away.

Provenza narrowed his eyes at him, but dropped the matter.

In response, Andy just rolled his eyes at him, but took a moment to give the rest of his division a look. There was none of the usual morning chit-chat and in the few seconds that he had kept his gaze on them, everyone had managed to at least once throw a glance into Sharon's office. He could guess that once he turned his back (or side) to them, he might be on the receiving end of similar glances.

He suppressed a groan and turned to face his desk again. The tension in the room could be practically cut through with a knife. Of course, he could have just tried telling them flat out that it was all back to normal again, but if their earlier reaction to him was anything to go by, they were not exactly in the mood to listen to him anyway, much less believe what he had to say. And since he really didn't want to start the day by losing his temper again, he decided to just try ignoring them until Sharon arrived. It was best they dealt with this together, anyway.

The decision, however, did not help his already ruined mood. He took it out on his computer by stabbing his index finger forcefully into its power button. As he watched the machine boot up, he actually found himself thanking the heavens for paperwork, of which there always seemed to be plenty of, whether they had an active case on their hands or not.

Maybe focusing on that would help him survive the heavy tension he was sitting in until Sharon finally made it into work.

...

"Oh, I'm so sorry I'm late," Sharon said, her familiar heeled, albeit slightly hurried footsteps announcing her arrival long before anyone ever heard her words.

She had texted Andy half an hour ago and in that half hour, Andy had not exchanged a single word with any of his team members, nor had they exchanged any words among themselves. So not only was the mood in the room heavy and uncomfortable, the silence was even more so. And it was starting to make Andy more irritated by the second. When he heard Sharon approaching, his relief over the mere prospect of soon dealing with this with her, was palpable.

He turned in his chair to look at her, noticing that his colleagues' heads had snapped up to eagerly look at her as well.

"Don't worry about it, Captain," Amy waved her apology off.

"I think you get a free pass after yesterday, Ma'am," Julio added jokingly although he also sounded like he meant the words.

Sharon smiled at the two and admitted, "Well, yesterday was why I am, unfortunately running late today." She then shrugged as if putting the matter behind her and added, "Anyway," she extended the smile to the rest of her division, "good morning everybody."

She then walked toward her office, casually taking in her team's returned greeting on the way, oblivious to the accusing looks aimed at Andy at the same time.

Only, Andy did notice them and frowned at them.

"Really?" he asked, unable to control himself any more, his earlier resolve to come up with an approach plan with Sharon obviously completely vanishing now.

Sharon stopped in her tracks to give him a surprised look, then looked at the rest of her division Andy had apparently aimed his question at. They did not look surprised, and, if anything, she would say they looked defiant instead.

But Andy ignored both her and them. "Really?" he repeated incredulously. "I've been here for half an hour and you've barely said hello to me," he waved a hand at Sharon, whose eyebrows shot up at being suddenly included in his unexpected rant, "and _she_ 's been here barely 30 seconds and," he paused, clearly looking for the right words, "and you," he tried, but then suddenly threw his arms out and simply ended his little outburst with a scoffed, "Ugh!"

Nobody said a word in response. They either shrugged or looked uncomfortably away. It took Sharon a second to fill in the blanks and figure out what had managed to rile up Andy that much this early in the morning and she only did so when she registered Provenza's angry glare aimed at him.

"Oh, for crying out loud," she suddenly let out, looking heavenwards. She took a few steps toward Andy's desk and flopped down her purse on top of it before turning fully toward the rest of her squad. That got their proper attention and they watched her even more surprised than she had been a moment ago. However, when she spoke, she leaned against Andy's desk and addressed him. "What was it you said last night, Andy?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow at him. Her voice was just slightly higher than usual, too, and Andy, slightly startled, snapped out of his irritated haze to look up at her. "They'll forget all about it?" she clarified, waving a hand at the team as if they were not able to see or hear her.

To everybody's renewed surprise, Andy instantly deflated and just half chuckled, half groaned. "Trust me, Sharon, I am more than aware of how wrong I was," he assured her.

She actually smiled at the begrudging undertone of his words and finally focused on her team. She pushed off the desk, to stand straight again, too.

"We have moved past yesterday's unfortunate events," she told them as casually as if she was informing them about the current weather. "I don't know what exactly is going on here right now," she added, waving a hand between them and Andy, "but I would appreciate it if you would stop and move past them as well." At the end of her sentence she gave her division a pointed look, making it clear that that was nothing short of an order.

Andy looked at her in awe. He had really had no idea _what_ she could tell the team or _how_ she could tell them anything in regards to them without it getting even more awkward, but this hit the nail exactly on its head.

Suddenly, they started talking to each other as if Sharon had not just all but scolded them like a bunch of school kids. What was more, it was as if him and Sharon weren't even in the room anymore. They exchanged an incredulous look with each other before giving the team a listen.

"Told you they'd figure it out," Julio told Amy, grinning rather smugly at her.

Amy gladly nodded in response and added, "They certainly don't look angry anymore."

"I guess the Lieutenant apologized," Buzz happily chipped in.

Provenza, not really participating in any of the conversations, rolled his eyes and muttered, "It's _Sharon_ and _Andy_ again."

At that, both Sharon and Andy shot the man an identically amused look and noticing it, Mike let out a "Ha!" pointing a finger at them. "In sync again, too!" he added.

Sharon's eyebrows went up and she aimed a surprised look at the man.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Andy got to his feet and walked toward them with his palms raised, effectively quieting them all down. Sharon only watched him walk by. "Whose side were you guys on?" he asked, stopping in the middle of the room. He sounded mildly offended and pinned Buzz with a hard look, too. "And what was that about me apologizing?" he added.

Sharon, standing behind him now, suddenly let out a soft laugh and he whirled around to look at her, practically bewildered now. "What's so funny?" he asked, still visibly agitated, but in a voice that was back to its lower and calmer tones.

The brief pause she had before answering, made Andy think that was not an entirely truthful answer. "You did apologize, Andy," she told him simply, probably not on purpose letting the team in on that little tidbit.

He only scoffed and turned around, not letting the team try responding, even though they probably weren't even thinking of trying since they were now busy chuckling over Sharon's quick reply. "And what's with the silent treatment, huh?" he asked them.

Amy readily answered. "Sorry, Lieutenant," she sounded genuinely apologetic, "we just assumed since you came into work alone," she let her shrug explain the rest of her thought process.

Andy rolled his eyes, he had guessed as much, but something else was bothering him actually. "And you take _her_ ," he waved a hand at Sharon, "side?" The question had Sharon shoot his back an unimpressed look, but he did not notice it.

Julio suddenly spoke up. "Well, we don't exactly want to get on the Captain's bad side, Lieutenant." His shoulders were shaking slightly with his barely held back laughter.

In support, the rest of the team, including Provenza, enthusiastically nodded, making Sharon laugh again.

Much to everyone's surprise again, Andy suddenly deflated and looking rather smug now, turned on his heel and walked back to his chair. On his way, he said, "Good, I was starting to worry you liked her more than me."

Sharon rolled her eyes at him before she could stop herself, but to everybody's shock, it was Provenza who verbally disagreed with Andy's conclusion.

"Oh, but we do, don't you worry about that, Flynn," he told him, highlighting his words by pointing a finger at him and giving him a pointed look over it.

For the briefest of moments, Sharon looked at her oldest Lieutenant in astonishment. She didn't need to look to her left to know Andy probably had a similar expression on his face. But then her look turned positively devious as she raised an eyebrow at Provenza and smiled.

"Is that so, Lieutenant?" she asked him, not bothering to mask her satisfaction over the Lieutenant's unexpected admission, but rather purposefully letting her voice take on that high note that would give it away.

He opened his mouth to quickly respond but lacking the proper response, promptly snapped it shut again. He did shoot Andy an irritated look. His sly grin would have annoyed him even if it weren't on his face because of him.

"Ma'am, I think you're making the Lieutenant uncomfortable," Julio told Sharon, knowing fully well he was pointing out the obvious.

"Oh, Julio," Sharon turned her attention to him and smirked, "I know," she told him, a grin threatening to spill over her face.

Everybody, sans Provenza, who shot her an unimpressed glare, burst out laughing.

Their laughter was quickly interrupted though, when Mike's phone went off. They could guess what it was about even before they heard his "We're on our way."

They waited expectantly for him to hang up and when he did, he grimaced and confirmed it, already getting to his feet. "We caught a case, Captain," he told Sharon. "Check your phones, address is on the way," he told his other team members.

"Just a second," Sharon raised a hand to hold them up, not wanting for them to scatter before she was sure the matter was settled. They all stopped mid-movement and looked at her so she asked, "Is this," she waved a hand between herself and Andy and them, "resolved then?"

At the question, Andy's head snapped up to look first at her then at his team members.

They exchanged a few looks between each other, then, almost in unison, shrugged and said, "Yes, Captain."

She visibly relaxed and she felt Andy, next to her, relax, too. "Alright, go ahead," she gestured for them to carry on. "Keep me informed," she added, back to business now.

They all nodded in acknowledgement and made their way out. Andy lingered behind though and stopped Sharon by touching her elbow when she started walking toward her office again, her purse in hand again, too.

"How'd it go with Emily and Ricky?" he asked when she looked at him.

She briefly smiled a slightly tired smile, and, sounding positively relieved, said, "Crisis resolved."

Andy chuckled. "Good," he told her, then hesitated for a moment, giving the now empty desks of the murder room a quick look, before saying, "About that, sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that," he sighed, "but they were driving me nuts."

She laughed. "Yes, Andy, I noticed," she told him, running a hand down his arm. "Don't worry about it," she waved him off, "at least we've cleared it up now."

Andy chuckled again and looked at the desks again. "I can't believe they took your side," he told her, disbelief evident and he was glad they were alone because he had a feeling there was a bit of whining in his tone of voice as well.

Sharon laughed and, deciding not to comment, nudged his arm gently, ushering him out. "Crime scene, Lieutenant," she said, teasingly, even though the order to get to work was anything but.

Andy laughed. "Yes, Ma'am," he said, turning around to catch up with his partner, whom he was sharing a ride with.

Just as he said that, they heard Provenza's impatient "Flynn, I'm getting old here!" coming from somewhere in the hallway.

"I'm coming!" Andy instantly retorted equally impatiently, but suddenly hesitated instead of actually walking out, looking as if something else had popped into his head, and he turned around to look at and address Sharon again.

She could guess what he wanted to say. "It's all fine, Andy," she assured him before he could speak up. "Go," she ordered, waving a hand at him, when he uncertainly nodded, "and please, refrain from punching any more suspects," she added, slightly more playfully than yesterday's incident probably allowed.

She expected him to just roll his eyes and go on his merry way but, instead he seriously asked, "You coming with us?"

Puzzled, she frowned a little and said, "No, I'm not."

Andy suddenly smugly grinned. "I think it's safe to say I'll easily refrain then," he told her, bobbing an eyebrow up and down.

It really wasn't a laughing matter, especially after yesterday, and they both knew there were actually plenty of reasons why he might still end up punching a suspect, her not being the only one, but she laughed at him anyway, watching him as he threw her a mock salute and finally went after his partner before he could yell for him again.

She shook her head on her way to her office. At herself. At Andy. At Provenza. At the entire team.

It worried her how much havoc a simple misunderstanding between her and Andy had managed to wreak on her division. That it would cause her division to take sides in the matter, worried her even more so, even if she was also ever so slightly flattered by the fact that they ended up siding with her for some reason. It was also slightly unnerving to see just how interested her team was in the resolution to yesterday's incident, and not just on a professional level either.

But she shrugged it off. Mixing personal with professional was simply unavoidable, no matter how much effort they put into trying to avoid it.

All they really could do was to continue trying then, she concluded as she put away her purse and took a seat behind her desk, especially in order to avoid a repeat performance of yesterday's fiasco.

She threw a glance into the empty murder room and smiled. It was all a bit awkward, really, and she certainly did not like it, but at least they had put it all behind them now.

She looked at the top of her desk and noticed the paperwork from the day before still sitting there, incomplete. She located her pen and started scribbling.

It was business as usual again.

 **THE END**


End file.
